When you get injured from an auto accident and end up with a lot of medical bills, you might wonder how you should pay for them, especially if you do not have a lot of extra cash to use for these bills. This is a common question that victims have after car accidents, and here are a few things you should understand about paying for your medical bills from a recent car accident.

You Can Use Your Health Insurance if You Have It

If you currently have health insurance, you should use it to pay for all your medical bills. If you do this, you will have fewer out-of-pocket costs for your health care bills due to your accident. You should realize, though, that if you use your health insurance to pay for medical bills, your health insurance company might require repayment for these bills from your settlement. Your lawyer will find this out for you and will work it into the settlement amount in your case.

The main benefit of using your health insurance is that it will alleviate receiving a lot of bills you cannot pay. If you end up having to pay these bills back from your settlement, at least you would not have to deal with unpaid medical bills coming in the mail for the next few months or years.

You Should Document All Medical Bills

Secondly, you should make sure that you record all the medical bills you incur due to the accident. If possible, include the full amount of the bill and the amount you paid out of your pocket. This can even include bills for related costs, such as counseling services if you suffered emotional trauma from the accident. Keep a running total of all these bills and give a copy of it to your lawyer.

You May Want to Use an Agreement to Avoid Judgments

If you end up with a lot of bills you cannot pay right now, talk to your lawyer about a hold agreement, or something similar. This type of agreement is something that allows you to ask the health care companies to wait to collect payment for the bills you owe. In other words, you will let them know that you were in an accident and are working through a case for it. You can agree to pay the bills in full when you receive the settlement, and most health care companies will agree to stop pursuing collections during this time. If you owe money to a lot of different health care organizations, you or your lawyer would have to contact each one to work out an agreement for this.

By choosing this route, you can avoid negative marks on your credit report, and this is important because health care providers could file judgments on the debts you owe if you are not paying them when they are due. With an agreement, your providers will wait for your settlement before proceeding with judgments or collections.

Your Settlement Should Cover All the Bills You Have

The settlement you receive should cover all the bills you owe plus some. In fact, when your lawyer receives the settlement check, he or she will pay all the bills you owe for the accident before giving you your portion of the check.

If you are in severe financial distress from the bills you have for health care and from not being able to work, there is another option you could consider. This option is called a lawsuit settlement loan. Through this type of loan, you can receive cash upfront for your settlement. When you receive your settlement, your lawyer will deduct the money you received from the loan and will repay the lawsuit loan lender.

If you are in the position right now where you have medical bills from your accident that you cannot pay, talk to a personal injury law firm, such as Randall A. Wolff & Associates, Ltd, soon to find out what you should do.

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