Calculating Your Accident-Related Medical Expenses in a Personal Injury Case
Everyone agrees that medical bills are too expensive, but figuring out just how expensive they are is harder than it looks. When the bill arrives in the mail, there is a phone number you can call if you cannot pay it. When you call, you might be able to get the hospital to reduce the price because of your financial hardship. More likely, though, you will enroll in a payment plan, where you do not have to pay the full amount now, so while the portion of this month’s paycheck that you must put toward the medical bill may be lower, you will pay more over time because the remaining balance will accrue interest. Trying to figure out the total medical expenses you incurred for a single injury is even more difficult, because you must include follow-up treatment, prescription drugs, and physical therapy. Determining the cost of your accident-related medical treatment is an important part of filing an injury claim. If you are struggling financially because of accidental injuries caused by someone else’s negligence, contact a Fort Lauderdale personal injury attorney.
You Can’t Include Insurance Write-Offs and Phantom Damages in Your Request for Compensation
When you file a lawsuit against the party legally responsible for the accident that caused your injuries or a claim with that party’s insurance company, you can request compensation for all the financial losses that you incurred because of that party’s negligence. Except in the case of the most serious injuries, the biggest financial losses will be in the form of medical bills. This is a wide-ranging category, including emergency room visits, hospitalizations, outpatient surgery, doctors’ office visits, prescription drugs, and medical devices, among other expenses. Just gathering all the bills and adding them up is a lot of work.
There are those columns on the bill that show you how much the provider could have charged you, compared to how much you owe. You can include some, but not all, of the non-owed amounts in your requested damages amount. For example, if you paid part of the bill and your health insurance paid the rest, you can include your insurer’s portion, but when your case settles, you will have to pay part of the settlement amount to the insurance company; you don’t get to pocket the insurance company’s contribution. Furthermore, amounts that are purely theoretical cannot count toward your damages award. You cannot include insurance write offs, which are discounts that the healthcare provider gave to your health insurance company. You also cannot include phantom damages. These are the amounts that the provider theoretically could have asked you to pay, but instead asked for a lower amount. Phantom damages are like when you buy a pair of shoes at Sawgrass Mills for $80, and there is another price sticker on the same shoebox, telling you that it could have cost $360.
Set Up a Consultation Today
A personal injury lawyer can help you recover compensation for your accident-related medical bills. Contact Boone & Davis in Fort Lauderdale, Florida or call 954-566-9919 to explore your potential recovery options today.
Source:
fljustice.org/files/124353479.pdfhttps:/www.fljustice.org/files/124353479.pdf
