It’s not just about the total amount of medical bills and expenses you incur.
It’s about the strategies you can use to maximize the take-home value of your case, meaning the amount that you get in your pocket after all bills, fees, and expenses are paid out of a settlement.
That being said, your case is really about getting better and getting the medical treatment that you need. You should always follow your doctor’s recommendations.
But don’t make the mistake of thinking that overtreatment is going to improve the value of your case because it won’t. It just creates more expenses that you have to pay out of your settlement.
So, what can you do to get the most value out of your case?
Using your own insurance to pay medical bills will increase the amount of money you will end up within your pocket. There are two ways to do this – health insurance, and personal injury protection, or PIP coverage.
If you have health insurance, never make the mistake of failing to give your insurance information to every medical provider you see.
Health insurance carriers pay the provider a mere fraction of the actual amount that’s billed. If the provider is in the network, they have to accept that payment as payment in full.
When it comes time to settle your case, you can claim the full amount of what the provider billed, but you only have to pay back the insurance carrier what they paid. You get to keep the difference.
Most people have $2,500 worth of medical payments coverage on their auto policy, commonly referred to as PIP or personal injury protection. You can use this coverage to pay medical bills as well.
The best part about PIP is that you don’t have to pay it back out of a settlement. Every dollar worth of PIP that you use is a dollar that goes directly in your pocket at the time of settlement.
There is no downside to using your PIP coverage. Under Maryland law, your auto insurance carrier is not allowed to raise your rates for using PIP.
