Personal Injury Law

Georgia Serious Injury Cases: Frequently Asked Question Number 8

This blog will continue in our series of providing our readers with answers to frequently asked questions in the context of a serious injury case. This blog will address FAQ number 8:

9. If I have no health insurance and the at fault driver has little or no liability insurance coverage, what happens if my medical bills exceed available coverages?

Answer: This is a sad case that we see far too often in our practice. The hypothetical at fault driver has run the stop sign or red light and has caused serious injuries. The at fault driver has minimum limits of $25,000.00 which are insufficient to pay the medical expenses incurred. The injured individual has no health insurance. Thus, medical expenses exceed all forms of available coverage. What happens? Typically, lots of problems. If the medical expenses exceed available coverage then counsel will attempt to negotiate some type of settlement with the hospital and healthcare providers because there is simply not enough money to go around and what is available needs to be divided on an equitable basis. Sometimes this works and sometimes it does not. If there is a Hospital Lien, for example, the Hospital Lien takes priority by operation of law and all of the settlement funds might have to be paid to the hospital leaving the injured individual with nothing. Again, these are sad and complicated cases requiring careful review by experienced counsel. This, of course, is why it is so important that the public protect itself through Medical Payments coverage, health insurance coverage, disability coverage and/or any other forms of coverage such as uninsured motorist coverage if such coverage can be purchased and is affordable. If such coverage is not affordable and the injured individual has nothing then literally they are at the mercy of the resources of the at fault defendant which in many cases are themselves grossly insufficient to pay for medical expenses, much less pain and suffering and lost wages.

It is quite possible in these sad and tragic cases that the injured individual ends up declaring bankruptcy if the medical expenses are huge. In a serious injury case, medical expenses can literally be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. It is easy to see that if the at fault driver only has $25,000.00 and medical expenses are in excess of $200,000.00 that there is simply not enough money to go around. If the injured client has no heath insurance and the at fault driver only as $25,000.00, in the hypothetical case cited, there would be unpaid medical bills in the amount of $175,000.00. Bankruptcy might be the best alternative in such a case if something cannot be worked out by and between the healthcare provider and counsel for the client. This is the reality of any case where the client has no protection for himself and the at fault driver has little or no coverage either. Again, the best way to protect against such a catastrophe is to purchase healthcare coverage and uninsured motorist coverage if at all possible.

Full post as published by Georgia Injury Lawyer Blog on February 04, 2008 (boomark / email).