Who Pays for Medical Bills After a Car Accident in California?
In California, the responsibility for paying medical bills after a car accident primarily depends on who’s at fault. The state’s at-fault insurance system mandates that drivers carry liability insurance as their primary source of coverage. If you weren’t completely at fault for a car accident, you might be able to get coverage or reimbursement for medical bills from the at-fault driver’s insurance. If you were totally at fault, you must go through your own insurance, including automobile and medical policies.
After establishing fault, injured parties must file a claim with the at-fault driver’s insurance company to seek compensation. However, the responsible party may not admit liability or immediately pay for your medical bills. While waiting for a trial or settlement, you have several options for getting your medical bills paid, including private health insurance, government insurance, and more.
“In California, we have juries to decide who is responsible, and we bring our cases to trial to apportion responsibility between everybody that contributed to your injury.”
Hiring one of our experienced Sacramento car accident lawyers can help you determine the best path forward to get the treatment you need and the compensation you deserve.
Pay Medical Bills Through the At-Fault Party's Insurance
If you weren’t at fault for your car accident, the other driver’s insurance company is typically responsible for paying your medical bills through their liability coverage. The other driver’s insurance is the first place you should turn for compensation after an accident you didn’t cause.
According to California law, every motorist must have the following minimum liability insurance coverage:
- $15,000 in bodily injury coverage for one person per accident
- $30,000 for multiple injured persons per accident
- $5,000 of property damage coverage per accident
Under California’s statute of limitations, you have two years after a car accident to file a personal injury lawsuit and three years to file a property damage suit.
Pay Medical Bills Through Your Own Insurance Coverage
Sometimes, you may need to use your own insurance for medical bills after a car accident. If the at-fault driver’s insurance is insufficient to cover all medical expenses or if you caused the accident, your own auto and health insurance policies will need to supplement paying the bills. If you do need to pursue a claim through your own insurance, you have several options for coverage:
- Private health insurance
- You may have private health insurance through your employer, the Affordable Care Act marketplace, or directly from a health insurance company.
- Government health insurance
- This includes Medicare and Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid program.
- Medicare Part A covers emergency services expenses, and Part B covers outpatient costs and medication, subject to co-pays and deductibles.
- Medi-Cal pays for medical expenses from car accidents if the injured person has no other source of insurance.
- MedPay
- Medical payments coverage, or MedPay, is an optional add-on to auto insurance policies covering medical expenses related to car accidents.
- Uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage
- Uninsured motorist coverage protects you if a driver without auto insurance hits you.
- Underinsured motorist coverage protects you if you’re hit by a driver who doesn’t have enough coverage to pay for the damage or injuries they caused.
Health Insurance
Health insurance and your automobile insurance interact with each other when you’re injured in a car accident. If there are remaining medical costs after what the at-fault party’s auto insurance covers, the injured party’s own health insurance may need to cover the additional expenses. However, the health insurance provider may seek reimbursement from any settlement or judgment received from the at-fault party’s insurer via a process called subrogation.
Private and government health insurers usually have a subrogation right, meaning they have the right to reimbursement from the proceeds of any lawsuit or settlement if you get a payout from another party. This can also include recovering the deductible you paid.
Medical Payments Coverage
Regardless of who is at fault in an accident, California drivers may use medical payments coverage, or MedPay, to help cover medical expenses if they’ve elected to purchase it. MedPay is available for an increased premium and covers the accident-related medical bills of the policyholder and their passengers up to the coverage limit, which is usually between $1,000 and $10,000.
With MedPay, there are no deductibles, and your insurer must pay even if you were at fault for the accident. Additional practitioners that wouldn’t be covered under traditional health insurance, like chiropractors and acupuncturists, may be covered under MedPay. If you have MedPay, you should use that coverage.
Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist Coverage
If the at-fault driver in an accident has no insurance or sufficient insurance to cover all your medical expenses, uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage can help cover the shortfall.
Uninsured motorist coverage covers your damages when the at-fault driver is uninsured or you are injured in a hit-and-run and don’t have the other driver’s information. Underinsured motorist coverage provides secondary insurance when the other driver’s liability coverage, or your own uninsured motorist coverage, is insufficient to cover medical costs.
California insurers must offer uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, but drivers aren’t required to purchase it. Our law firm highly recommends purchasing these coverages to protect you better if an accident occurs.
Pay Medical Bills Through Out-of-Pocket Payments
In cases where other coverage options are exhausted or unavailable, you may need to pay out of pocket and then seek reimbursement through legal means from the at-fault party. If you’re uninsured or unable to afford treatment, health care providers will work out a payment plan with you.
How Cutter Law Can Help You Cover Medical Bills
“You can recover all of your medical bills. You can recover your loss of earnings if you’ve missed work. And you can recover pain and suffering – what’s generally often the biggest if you’re significantly hurt.”
At Cutter Law, we understand that medical bills can add up fast after an accident. Mounting hospital bills, physical therapy expenses, and more can be overwhelming. We understand how one person’s serious injuries can affect an entire family. Our team can help negotiate with medical bills and insurance companies and help prove that you weren’t at fault in your accident.
Insurers operate in their own best interests and may try to dispute fault, induce you to make statements to use against you, pressure you to accept an early lowball settlement, or persuade you to sign your rights away. Hiring a Cutter Law attorney can help you navigate the legal system and protect your rights when negotiating with insurers.
As a family-owned firm with homegrown roots, Cutter Law provides a family-like experience for our clients via close attorney-client relationships and open communication. We see our clients as people, not cases, and you won’t pay us anything unless we win. If you or a loved one has been injured in a car accident that wasn’t your fault, contact our team of personal injury lawyers at Cutter Law Firm today for a free case review.
Brooks has a long-established, respected reputation as a skilled trial attorney and a record of proven success.
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