Can I Still Get Compensation if My Health Insurance Paid for My Injuries?

October 25, 2021 | Car Accidents,Personal Injury

If you sustain an injury caused by the actions of another individual or entity in Indiana, the number one priority has to be securing compensation for your medical bills. After all, your medical treatment cannot wait for an insurance settlement to come in from the at-fault party. Often, individuals have to rely on their personal insurance carriers to pay for medical bills while they await a settlement. However, can you still recover compensation from the at-fault party if your insurance carrier pays for your injuries? Here, we want to talk about how this process works, as well as something called subrogation.

Why Your Insurance Carrier May Need to Pay Initially

If an individual sustains an injury caused by the careless or negligent actions of another person, they will likely be able to recover compensation. However, insurance settlements or personal injury trials can take some time to conclude. In the meantime, the injured individual has to seek medical care. This can become costly.

Individuals who sustain an injury regularly turn to their own insurance carriers to pay their medical bills while they are awaiting a settlement from an insurance carrier or a jury verdict in their case.

Your Insurance May Get Reimbursed for Their Expenses

Legally, subrogation allows insurance carriers to pay compensation for your injuries and then seek repayment from the liable party. However, subrogation can get confusing, particularly when it comes to disputes about how much compensation the insurance carrier receives from a final insurance settlement or jury verdict.

In general, an insurance carrier can place a lien on an eventual settlement or verdict in order to ensure that they recover the compensation that they have paid out for a claim.

Will This Keep You From Getting Paid?

If you have sustained an injury caused by someone else and are concerned about whether or not you will recover compensation because your insurance carrier paid your medical bills, you should speak to a skilled personal injury lawyer as soon as possible. When it comes to compensation for an injury claim, regardless of whether or not the money is from an insurance settlement or a jury verdict, medical bills do not make up the entire amount.

Yes, even though your personal insurance carrier may be able to reclaim some of the money they paid for your medical bills, you will likely have some compensation coming to you for other types of damages. For example, injury victims in Indiana are often able to recover compensation for the following:

  • Lost wages if they cannot work while they recover
  • General household out-of-pocket expenses arising as a result of the injury
  • Property damage expenses
  • Pain and suffering damages
  • Loss of quality of life damages

These other economic and non-economic damages that could come from your accident injury settlement or jury verdict amount may be significant. When you work with a personal injury lawyer to help with your claim, the accident lawyer will be able to walk you through all of the types of compensation you should be able to recover. They will work with trusted financial and economic experts to make sure that you recover maximum compensation for your losses.