The four fastest ways of getting money from somebody else for your injury are: 1) Health Insurance 2) Medical Payments Coverage from your auto insurance 3) Kentucky NoFault Pip (if you qualify) and 4) Lawsuit Loans.
This is important to a lot of people, because you can’t make the insurance company for the other driver pay until you are ready to settle. You may not reach that point for a year after the accident, because you don’t want to settle before you know how bad you’re hurt.
There might be other things you should think about first – like how bad do you need the money(everybody needs it bad – duh) and whether there are ways to not need as much money – but if you really need the money, these questions are just insulting. So I’ll get to the point.
1) Your own medical insurance – this will take care of the bulk of your doctor and hospital bills, and usually the doctor or hospital is willing to work out a deal with you for payments on the rest. One downside is that a lot of people don’t have the insurance. Another is that a lot of people have “catastrophic” plans, with large deductibles and copays. The last is that the insurance company wants to be paid back at the end.
2) Medical Payments Coverage – If you have it, this is part of your car insurance coverage. You can find out if you have it by looking at your bill, where they list the coverages. The insurance company doesn’t have to provide or offer it, but most people have it in Ohio.
It can provide usually between $1,000 and $10,000 in coverage, but I have seen some policies with as much as $25,000.00 in coverage. You or your lawyer send the bill to your insurance company, along with a form that lets the insurance company look at your records to make sure that the injury was actually caused by the accident.
One advantage is that sometimes, the insurance company won’t insist that the money actually be paid to the doctor – meaning that you can use it for other things that may be more necessary, like paying for a specialist, or food, or rent.
Again, when you settle, the insurance company wants their money back (although they may agree to take less). So if you don’t pay the doctor with the money when you get it, you wind up owing both the doctor and the insurance company.
3) Kentucky No Fault, or PIP – If you have a Kentucky auto policy, or if the accident happened in Kentucky, you probably are entitled to PIP benefits. This is insurance required by the State of Kentucky. It provides coverage for up to $10,000.00 in a) medical bills, b)lost wages (at up to $200 per week) or © any combination of the two.
Like medpay, many insurance companies will pay you directly, rather than routing the money directly to your doctor or hospital. The insurance company has to be paid back at the end of the case, but the state requires that they discount their repayment by up to $1,000.00. And they may agree to negotiate a reduction in what you owe them.
One other thing about PIP – If you don’t make a claim for it, you cannot make a claim for it on your personal injury lawsuit.
4) Lawsuit Loans – I have preached against these, because they have really high interest rates, of anywhere from 33 1/3 % to 100% per year, and they can really screw up your ability to get the most out of your lawsuit.
But for some clients, there is nowhere else they can get the funds. So when that’s the case, I help you get the loan. Type “lawsuit loan” into your browser, and you’ll find companies crawling at your feet.
These can be used in combination sometimes. If you have an Ohio insurance policy and you have an accident in Kentucky, you may be able to draw on both your Ohio auto insurance medpay max of $10,000.00 and your Kentucky PIP max of $10,000.00. You can often submit a bill that has been paid by your health insurance to either your PIP or your Medpay – or even to both.
Getting back to the questions I raised at the beginning – whether you really need the money, and whether there’s anyplace else to get it. For a lot of people, needing money means that they have to satisfy their cash flow needs from other places, such as savings, loans on their house or car, or retirement plans.
That’s a good reason for using certain types of insurance such as PIP or Medpay coverage. It’s usually not a good reason for taking out a lawsuit loan. On the other hand, if you are not going to eat without a loan, you get the loan.
Another point, which is important – insurance companies are used to negotiating a reduction in what they are owed when it comes time to settle their case, but they don’t have to.
Finally – How do I feel? My biggest satisfaction comes from getting a client as much as I can get them at the end of the case, after I’ve paid everyone back that has to be paid back. So I don’t like lawsuit loans, and I am not wild about Medpay. With PIP, if you don’t submit the bill to PIP, you can’t get the insurance company for the other driver, so – at least for the first $10,000 of bills or lost wages – there’s no choice.
If you’re reading this, you obviously are interested in what you see. So why don’t you give me, a Cincinnati truck accident lawyer, a call.
I can probably give you an answer that will tell you more than anything you can read on a website or a blog.
If it makes you feel better, other lawyers refer their clients to me. And if you decide you‘d rather hire someone else, that’s OK. My phone is 513-621-4775.
Because all situations are different, and because there may be other facts pertaining to your case that I don’t know about, you should not rely on this answer for legal advice. I am not your attorney, and no lawyer client relationship has been formed. All discussions are limited to Ohio law unless otherwise indicated. And past performance cannot be used to predict future results.
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