Will My Personal Injury Bills Go To Collections?
Car accidents lead to hefty personal injury bills for both property damage and medical treatment. Hopefully, you’ll recover enough in your personal injury settlement or your child’s personal injury settlement, to take care of all of your bills. The problem is that many personal injury claims take a year or longer to settle. Medical providers are not always as patient with your billing as you might want them to be.
Communication With Billing Providers Is Key
If you’re represented by a Charlotte personal injury attorney, generally they will reach out to your providers to let them know they represent you. This puts the billing provider on notice that it will be a while before the bill is paid. The hope is that once your provider knows your bill is being paid in conjunction with settling your personal injury claim, they will hold your bill until the case settles. In many cases, the provider will check in with the personal injury attorney’s office every few months for a status update on the case. They will then mark your file to be reviewed again in a couple of months.
What If They Send My Bill To Collections?
Even if your personal injury attorney tells the billing provider you are represented in a personal injury claim, the provider may still choose to send the bill to collections. This could also mean that credit reporting agencies will be notified that your bill is delinquent. While this is annoying and you don’t deserve this treatment, the providers have the right to treat unpaid bills this way.
Should I Make Monthly Payments On My Medical Bills?
There is nothing wrong with making payments on your medical bills until your personal injury case settles. When the case does settle, you can get credit for any payments you’ve made on the bills, the same way you will get credit for paying co-pays at the time of treatment. This may be a way to keep the bills out of collections until your settlement comes through.
Will My Personal Injury Attorney Negotiate My Personal Injury Bills?
We have written a few articles on this website in our Personal Injury Blog about negotiating medical bills. Typically your personal injury attorney will negotiate your medical bills. There are relevant North Carolina statutes that also limit the amount of your settlement that medical billing providers are entitled to. Your attorney will use these statutes together with arguments about your case, to encourage medical providers to lower their bills.
Filing Bankruptcy After Personal Injury
If your personal injury settlement is insufficient to pay all of your personal injury bills, you might consider filing bankruptcy. Our firm has helped numerous personal injury clients with bankruptcy filings. Clients generally have additional debt such as credit card debt or unrelated medical bills, which make filing a bankruptcy a smart decision. We’re happy to discuss how bankruptcy works, or you can visit our Bankruptcy Blog and get some questions answered there.
Speak With A Personal Injury Attorney Today
If you have questions about working with a personal injury attorney, or if you have questions about a medical bill from a car accident, call us today. You can call 704.749.7747 or click for a FREE CASE EVALUATION and we will contact you immediately. When it comes to choosing a personal injury law firm, we know you have options. We hope you choose to Recover With Us.