The tip that I’m going to discuss in this video can help you get the most money possible in your pocket for your car accident injury settlement if your car accident took place in Louisville, Kentucky, the city I practice law in.
To teach you how this tip can work in a real-life case, let me tell you the story of my past client, Ray.
The Story of Ray
Ray was in a motor vehicle accident in Louisville, Kentucky. The other driver was clearly at fault for the accident as they came over into Ray’s lane of travel and struck his vehicle. Ray suffered injuries in a car accident, in which he sustained damages, including medical bills and pain and suffering.
I recall speaking with Ray shortly after his accident. Ray sounded hopeless, but he still wisely thought it was a good idea to contact my office.
After signing Ray up as a client, what I did next was huge for Ray’s case, and it is the tip I will teach you in this video that can help you get the most amount possible in your pocket in your injury claim.
The Tip: Protect Your PIP Benefits
So, what I did was I instructed Ray’s automobile insurance company in writing to not pay any no-fault insurance benefits to cover Ray’s ER hospital bill.
No-fault insurance is automobile insurance on your own vehicle that helps pay for medical bills and some lost wages if you’ve been injured in a car accident. If you live in Kentucky, you may have heard that Kentucky is a no-fault insurance state. This means it is very likely the case that if you live in Kentucky, you may have heard that Kentucky is a no-fault insurance state.
In some cases, even if you don’t live in Kentucky but the accident happened in Kentucky and you were injured in a car accident, you are likely eligible for $10,000 to go towards your medical expenses related to the accident, no matter, even if you are at fault in the accident.
No-Fault Benefits are commonly called Personal Injury Protection Benefits or PIP benefits for short.
Why This Tip Works
In Ray’s case, I was eventually able to settle his injury claim for the policy limits of $100,000. But Ray’s supplemental Medicare plan provider had paid for some of Ray’s accident-related medical bills. This means his Medicare provider had a lien on Ray’s injury claim. Anytime your health insurer, Medicaid provider, or Medicare provider pays for accident-related treatment, they have a lien on your case, meaning they must be paid back out of the settlement.
So, after we settled the injury case, we had to resolve the lien with Ray’s Medicare provider. Ray’s medical charges paid by Medicare totaled nearly $100,000, with the vast majority stemming from his ER hospital visit over the course of multiple days.
Because Ray’s Medicare provider only had to pay the medical provider at a discounted rate, even though his Medicare provider paid nearly $100,000 in medical bills, they only claimed a lien of under $15,000. We were able to negotiate Ray’s Medicare lien down to under $10,000.
While Ray’s PIP insurer did pay for some smaller medical bills, by the time I settled Ray’s case, he still had nearly $5,000 left in PIP benefits we could use to go towards paying off his Medicare lien.
This is why it is wise for anyone in Louisville, Kentucky, to instruct your automobile insurer in writing as soon as possible after your car accident to not make a mistake. In Ray’s case, I instructed the insurer to not pay any hospital bill over $1,000. Because I did that, instead of having to owe nearly $100,000 in medical expenses, we only had to reimburse about $5,000 out of Ray’s settlement to go towards paying off the Medicare lien.
This strategy tremendously maximized the amount of money Ray had in his pocket for his settlement. While Ray was a Medicare recipient, this tip also works if you are on Medicaid or on a health insurance plan. By directing your PIP insurer not to pay any large hospital bill, it can save you boatloads of money.
This is a strategy my office uses every chance we get for all of our Kentucky Car Accident Injury clients because it is the best way to maximize the amount of compensation a Kentucky Car Accident injury victim receives in their pocket.
Conclusion
If you’ve been injured in a car accident in Louisville, Kentucky, and have watched this video, you now know a tip that can potentially save you boatloads of money when your injury case settles. But before you settle your car accident injury case in Louisville, Kentucky, there are actually four laws you must know that are absolutely crucial for the handling of your car accident injury claim. And in this video about to pop up right here, I will tell you what those four laws are so you have a better chance at a big payout in your Louisville, Kentucky car accident injury case.
Lastly, if you’ve been injured in a car accident, slip or trip and fall incident, or dog attack incident in Kentucky, remember: don’t wait; call Tate.
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