Tips for Paying Medical Bills While Waiting for Your Personal Injury Settlement

After a car accident leaves you with injuries, you might wonder what you will do with all your medical bills while you wait for your settlement check. This is a common question people have, but there are options. Here are some tips to help you know how to handle your medical bills to prevent collection accounts on your credit report

Utilize Your Health Insurance

If you currently have health insurance, use it for your medical services, even if you are not at-fault for the accident. Your health insurance may cover a large percentage of the bills, leaving you responsible only for paying a portion of them. Even though it may not make sense to you to pay the bills with your own insurance, it will benefit you in the end. Using your own health insurance offers several benefits, including:

• You have a lower chance of medical bills being turned over to collections
• You will pay only a portion out of your pocket
• You will have fewer bills to pay out of your settlement money, which means you will have more money in your pocket.

Using this tip could help you save a lot of money.

Ask Your Lawyer About Liens

A lien is something that gives a person the right to collect money, and this is a strategy that is often used in personal injury cases. When you owe a lot of money for various medical bills, you lawyer could use liens to stop the healthcare providers from going after you for the money.

To use a lien for this purpose, your attorney would have to call each provider you owe money to. The attorney would ask the provider if they could have a lien placed on the debt until the case closes and settlement money is received. If the providers agree to this, you would never have to worry about collections on your credit report.

The healthcare providers would simply wait for you to receive your settlement check, and they would expect to be paid at that point. The providers would have to agree not to send the bills to collections, in exchange for payment at a future date. Many healthcare providers are willing to do this, because they know that they will eventually receive the money.

When you do receive the settlement check, it will likely go directly to your lawyer. Your lawyer will take his or her share from the money and pay all the medical bills you owe, but the rest of the money will be yours.

Get a Lawsuit Settlement Loan

If neither of the first two options will help you in your situation, you could always consider getting a lawsuit settlement loan. This is a loan that is available for people expected to win settlements from lawsuits. The purpose of the loan is to provide a way for a victim to survive financially while waiting for the settlement money.

Taking a loan like this is a great way to pay all the medical bills you have, and you could also use the money from it to live on. When you eventually receive your settlement, you would have to repay the loan with the proceeds. If there is money left after paying off your loan, you will receive it. Before you choose this option, make sure you fully understand the terms of the loan and how it works.

If you have worked hard over the years to build your credit, you probably will want to do all you can to protect it. By following these tips, you will have a better chance of protecting your credit after a car accident. To learn more, contact a personal injury lawyer near you.