Medical bills in California are some of the highest in the entire world. After an accident you can get stuck with tens of thousands of bills and not know where to turn. In the worst case scenario, you may have settled your claim with the insurance provider early and then the bills start to pile in. Luckily, an attorney can negotiate those medical bills for you and it is quite common to get at least 20% off the bills but we have seen cases where our clients are getting around 66% of the bills reduced.
What is a lien on medical bills?
A lien on medical bills is something that occurs after an accident. When the insurance company suspects that you may have a personal injury claim pending, they then send you information to fill out saying that they are looking into putting a lien on your claim. The reason they do this is because they feel that if another party is responsible then that other person’s insurance should be covering the bills. This is called subrogation. That means that if a lien is put on the medical bills then the full value of the medical bills need to be paid by the victim of the accident.
If I am the victim of an accident should I pay my medical bills or should I wait?
It is quite common for people to wonder if they should pay their medical bills right away or if they should wait. The short answer is that the person who gets the bills should pay them right away. The long answer is a little more complicated. If someone is in an accident and they are not at fault then those bills are going to get paid either way.
The victim of the accident will temporarily be responsible for all the co-pays in that situation and we recommend paying them. Even if the insurance company is going to compensate you at a later time for those bills, during that time when you are in limbo, you are still legally responsible for them. That means that not paying co-pays could affect your credit in a negative way. We tell all of our clients, if you have the money to pay the bills then make sure pay them and then we will get the money back from the insurer at a later time.