If you get hurt badly in an accident, you might not only be hurt physically, but also financially. Most of us think we have insurance to cover these kinds of things, which is partly true. However, insurance companies' main goal is to pay out as little as possible and put the cost on you.
Many people don't know everything there is to know about how insurance companies really work. Most insurance companies want to improve their bottom line and, by extension, the value of their stockholders' shares. Let's look at how insurance companies and hospitals work together to save money and pass costs on to you, the insured person.
If you're in a serious accident and break your leg, your insurance company will pay a portion of the cost of treating your broken leg to the hospital. If you broke your leg and paid the hospital bill in full out of your own pocket, it would cost you $5,000. Now, most of us think that our insurance company pays the hospital the full $5,000, but that is not the case. Only a part will be paid by the insurance company. For instance, they might pay $4,000 for the surgery. This happens because insurance companies make deals with hospitals that are hard to understand and give the hospitals a discount. If the hospital doesn't agree to give a big discount, the insurance company won't let it be part of their "covered network" of doctors and hospitals. This means that most of the time, the hospital won't be able to treat anyone who has insurance from that company. This could mean that hospital could get tens of thousands of new patients.
Insurance companies always have more power in contract talks with hospitals, so hospitals always negotiate and agree to some kind of discount. The insurance company will always pay less than the full cost of the procedure, no matter what.
Depending on your insurance plan and the things it doesn't cover, you may have to pay for some of your medical care. This can include the deductible and anything else that is different. Your policy may say that you are responsible for the first $1,000 of an inpatient stay (plus your deductible) and that the insurance company will pay the rest. Depending on your policy, these amounts can be different.
In a serious injury accident, if your insurance company can, they will put as much of the cost on you as they can. This could cause you to have a lot of money problems. This is even more true if your insurance company only pays for a portion of your treatment. For instance, they might agree to pay 85% of the cost. Now, if you were in a serious accident and the bill was $225,000, which is not unheard of, you would be responsible for $33,750 of the total bill.
If someone else caused the accident that hurt you badly, you will have to fight with that person's insurance company. These companies will try to get you to settle quickly and cheaply, or not at all. They will also try to take advantage of the fact that you don't know what you are actually entitled to. If you and the person who caused the accident both have the same insurance company, that's another example. This makes a new situation, and it's not unusual for insurance companies to try to save money on both sides of a problem.
If you get hurt badly, you need a lawyer who knows what they are doing and will look out for your best interests. No matter if you hurt yourself or someone else did, you need a lawyer to help you through the process. Every day, thousands of Americans get a bad deal from their insurance company, and most of them don't even know it; they just think that's how things work. A lawyer will help you sort through the complicated insurance policies and find the parts of the policy that give you the most complete coverage.
When you've been hurt badly, the last thing you should have to worry about is how to pay your medical bills. Unfortunately, you do have to take steps to make sure you don't get stuck with a huge bill that your insurance company should pay for. When you have a serious personal injury, the only person who is truly on your side is a lawyer, because he or she works for you and no one else.
