The unfortunate reality of an accident is that it can have a devastating financial impact on your life. If you’re injured in an accident, you will incur medical expenses for the treatment of your injuries. The average accident in the United States is estimated to cost tens of thousands of dollars in medical expense per accident. For a serious injury, the medical expenses can be in the hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars. At the same time, the single most important thing if you were in an accident is to obtain the medical treatment you need to ensure you return to the best health possible and can continue your life. Repairing your financial condition is only secondary to your health and well-being. It does beg the question, however, as to how these medical expenses should get paid?

Most people have both private health insurance, as well as some coverage under an insurance policy for medical payments (called “med-pay” for short). It’s important to note that health insurance may not cover the entire cost of your medical expenses and this often leaves a bill that needs to be paid out-of-pocket by the accident victim. This complicated insurance policy analysis is one of the key reasons you should hire a accident lawyer immediately. While the medical expenses you pay out of pocket should be paid back out of any compensation you receive, it can be burdensome for accident victims to pay this cost upfront while awaiting the potential settlements of their claims. In such circumstances, it can be an effective option to exhaust “med-pay” benefits under an applicable insurance policy before utilizing private insurance. This is possible because “med-pay” benefits under automobile insurance policies will cover the entire amount of the medical bills until the policy limit is exhausted, allowing accident victims to avoid the necessity of big out of pocket expenses.