There are multiple options as to who may pay for medical bills following an automobile accident. This can depend on which person or persons caused the accident and the coverage limits of insurance. Health insurance policies are important, as well as auto insurance, in covering medical bills. Typically automobile insurance is broken up into four types: liability, collision, comprehensive, and medical payment. Collision and comprehensive policies only cover damages done to your vehicle.
It can take some time before your insurance company establishes the amount owed to you and who may owe it to you. Medical treatment cannot wait for this to be figured out, and medical bills won’t wait either. If you have a primary health insurance policy, it may pay the costs of medical bills as soon as you meet your deductible and coverage eligibility. However, in serious accidents this may only cover a portion of the bills.
Medical pay auto insurance coverage policies cover the cost of medical bills for any auto related accidents up to the coverage limits whether the accident occurred while you were in the car as a passenger or driver, or you were walking or biking. Med pay also pays whether you were the person who caused the accident or not. Med pay requires the insurer to pay up to the coverage limits, even if the medical bills have already been paid for by your health insurance or any other way. Therefore, if you had incurred medical bills that have already been paid for but have $3,500 med pay coverage limit, your insurance company could still give you $3,500.
The insurance company that covers the driver who caused the accident may also be responsible to pay for your medical bills up to coverage limits. Virginia law dictates that an insurance company only has to pay for medical bills from liability coverage when a driver is at fault. Therefore, the party who was at fault shouldhave at least $25,000 available to use toward bodily injury claims (including medical bills). Virginia law requires all drivers purchase minimum limits of $25,000 for bodily injury or death of each person and up to $50,000 for multiple people. If the driver at-fault was uninsured your insurance could assist in making up the difference paying for medical bills.
If you have incurred medical bills as the result of an accident through no fault of your own, call the experienced personal injury attorneys at ReidGoodwin today at 804-415-7800 for a free no obligation consultation.