When you sustain serious injuries in an accident, your hospital bills can be overwhelming. Your insurance company is obligated to pay a certain amount, according to your insurance policy. Depending on the circumstances of the accident, the other driver’s insurance may also be obligated to pay a certain amount, as limited by the driver’s policy. You could have hospital liens placed against you for the outstanding balance.
What Is a Hospital Lien?
Hospitals and those who provide emergency services, like ambulance companies, have been given the right, by law, to be paid from settlement monies. When the injured party receives payment from a negligent third party, the hospital and emergency providers can take their payment out of that money.
Making Sure Hospital Liens Are Fair
Unfortunately, there is not a standard fee for hospital services. This means you may need professional help seeking a fair deal for payment of your medical treatment. A well-qualified legal representative may be able to negotiate a fair payment.
Too often, the charges are inflated far above what an insurer would have to pay. Sometimes, hospitals do not bill the insurer but will go after payment from the injured party’s settlement instead. Hospital liens can delay settlement payments from the responsible third party.
Being injured and hospitalized is traumatic enough without the added insult of needing to determine how you are going to pay exorbitant hospital fees. Legal representation may help you through these trying times so they are not as bleak as they first appear.
Hiring Legal Representation
Getting a fair deal when it comes to hospital liens requires a knowledge of the law as well as a knowledge of fair and reasonable pricing. There have been cases where an itemized list of costs has shown a Tylenol tablet costing over $70. Such inflated prices are not only unfair, but they are also ridiculous. You may not be aware of what a reasonable hospital bill should look like. Your legal representative, on the other hand, has a very good idea of what is allowable and what is not, if he or she has ample experience in these matters.
Hospital liens must follow certain stipulations and be filed within specific time frames. Again, when you have a qualified legal representative, that person will look into these matters for you.
The lawyers at Frohlich, Gordon & Beason, P.A., are very familiar with personal injury cases. Contact us for a free consultation to find out how we may be able to help you. We have offices located in Port Charlotte, Englewood and North Port to conveniently serve southwest Florida residents.