As an Attorney who has specialized in Personal Injury Law for the past 27 years in Los Angeles I’ve interviewed thousands of people who have been injured in motor vehicle accidents. It never ceases to amaze me just how many of these people either do not carry any uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage, or simply don’t carry enough.Let’s first start with the distinction between uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage. Uninsured motorist coverage is insurance that you purchase as part of your automobile liability policy that covers the occupants of your vehicle in the event that the negligent party who caused the accident did not carry any coverage. In practical terms, your uninsured motorist carrier steps into the shoes of the uninsured person who caused the accident, and becomes his/her coverage for the purposes of the claim.A common concern that I hear from clients when discussing their pursuit of an uninsured motorist claim is “I don’t want to make a claim against my insurance company. They will raise my premiums!” This is absolutely 100% false. The “UM” Claim is only viable if the uninsured party is found to be “at fault”, which means that any payment to the insured by their UM Carrier is an admission that the insured was NOT at fault, and therefore not at risk for having their premiums raised. A sigh of relief almost always follows this explanation.Underinsured Motorist Coverage is that coverage which “kicks in” after the negligent party’s insurance carrier has tendered it’s policy limits which are inadequate to compensate the insured for his/her injuries. The UM Limits though must exceed those of the defendants policy limits in order for coverage to apply. Here is an example of how this works:Bob is insured with State Farm and has UM limits of $100,000.00. He is rear ended in a terrible accident with Joe who is insured with AAA. Joe’s liability limits are only $15,000.00. Bob’s medical bills alone are $20,000.00. He also has thousands of dollars in lost earnings. In this case it is likely that AAA will offer to pay Joe’s policy limits of $15,000.00 to settle the case on Joe’s behalf. If Bob accepts that offer he can then make a claim for Underinsured Motorist Benefits with State Farm for up to $85,000.00 ($100,000.00 minus $15,000.00 received from State Farm).Based on the above-referenced example you can see how important it is to have sufficient UM Coverage. One day in the hospital can start at $10,000.00. I always tell my clients to purchase as much UM Coverage as they can afford because this coverage is essential. I am amazed by how many insurance policies I see where there is either no UM Coverage or coverage that is substantially less than the liability coverage. I always say the same thing to these people: “Do you realize that you are insuring people you don’t know and don’t care about for significantly more (sometimes as much as $100,000.00 more) than you and your loved ones who are traveling in your car. I always get the same response: “I’m going to call my agent as soon as I leave your office and increase my coverage”.UM Coverage also protects you and your family members when you or they are not even in your car, because it applies whenever these individuals are involved in any “Motor Vehicle Accident”. This includes situations where you may be a passenger in someone else’s car and there is not enough insurance to cover your injuries. It will insure you, or any family member, if you or they were hit by a car as a pedestrian, or riding a bike, or sitting in an outdoor cafe and a drunk driver crashes into your table. It acts like a safety net for you and your family in ways you probably never imagined. If your injury was the result of a motor vehicle accident, then your UM Coverage will be available if needed.California Law requires that your Insurance Company offer you UM Coverage with limits equal to the limits of liability for bodily injury in the underlying policy. See California Insurance Code 11580.2 (a). It is not mandatory that you purchase it, but if you don’t, the Insurance Company is required to have you sign a declaration declining such coverage. If they fail to do that, and you are involved in an accident with an uninsured driver, your Insurance Company will be required to provide you with up to $30, 000.00 per person and $60,000.00 per accident, depending on the liability coverage set forth in your policy. See Enter. Ins. Co. vs Mulleague (1987) 196 Cal App. 3d 528, 241 Cal. Rptr. 846.Another reason UM Coverage is so essential is the fact that accidents involving uninsured drivers are usually more serious. It is more likely that an uninsured driver will be driving without a license, driving while drunk, driving at a high rate of speed, etc… If you are involved in one of those collisions, and do not have adequate UM Coverage, you may be out of pocket huge sums of money in medical expenses and lost earnings.It is my hope that everyone reading this article review their insurance policy immediately and increase their UM Coverage by as much as they can afford. You will be surprised at how little the cost of the increase will be and it will supply you with a peace of mind that you and your family deserve.
Archive for the ‘Uninsured Hospital Bills’ Category
Uninsured Motorist Coverage: What Is It And Why You Must Have It
Friday, February 12th, 2010How To Improve Your Medical Billing Collections Now Using These Six Important Steps
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010Medical billing collections is increasing in usage, as many physician practices, medical clinics and hospitals face ever-growing past due debts from slow pay patient delinquencies and backed up insurance claims. With nearly 47 million Americans not having any private health coverage, a sluggish economy caused by a recession, as well as increasing unemployment, spells diminishing positive cash flow for medical practitioners.Given that prognosis, there are a number of things you can implement to increase your internal medical billing collections. By putting these six tactics into place, you can greatly improve your financial bottom line.1. Be sure you have a clear payment procedure, placed visibly at the front of your office. New patients need to understand clearly what, if any, payment is expected upfront, in regards to co-pays, etc. This should be understood BEFORE rendering service.2. Its vitally important that you collect ample and accurate patient information during the first visit to the doctor’s office. Get the patient’s full name, date of birth, address, work, home and cell phone numbers.Get their work information: address, phone number, their title or position, supervisor/manager, etc.Obviously, the more information you can collect, the better. While some may be reluctant to give their social security number, its still a good idea, especially if the account has to be turned over to a collection agency later.3. If the patient has health insurance, its important to verify at this point. While a doctor’s office can get quite hectic, this crucial step shouldn’t be overlooked. Verifying coverage will avoid headaches later on.4. In the initial patient application, you need to detail clearly the patients’ responsibility to pay. You might also want to consider adding language that in the event the account is turned over to an outside collection agency for lack of payment, the patient will be responsible for collection costs.Some states allow the business to recoup their costs for hiring an outside collections agency. This has to be clearly stated upfront in the original patient-signed application. (Be sure to consult with your attorney about this, as state laws vary)5. Allow patients to make payment arrangements for those going through financial difficulties. Because so many are either uninsured or under-insured, making reasonable payment arrangements via installments gives them more options, and greater peace of mind. It will also help generate cash flow to your practice.6. Know when to turn over delinquent accounts to a debt collection agency. As mentioned earlier, lack of health insurance, rising unemployment and a recession has placed greater financial strains on some patients ability to pay for health care.Most people intend to do the right thing and honoring their debt obligations. But the reality is that some others are less responsible. By using the before-mentioned procedures, consistently and early on, you can better identify the patients experiencing temporary financial problems from the “problem” delinquent accounts. Payment arrangements, and continued communications can better address those problems.However, the non-paying, more difficult clients need to be identified earlier as well. These are the accounts that should be outsourced to professional collection agencies, since they are better equipped to work with these types of accounts.Failing to do so only means wasting valuable time, money and labor dealing with these difficult clients. Time is an important factor, in that the longer your account goes unpaid, the lesser the likelihood of ever getting paid. By turning these over earlier, you greatly increase your chances of at least getting some money.As a general rule, after 90 days of non-payment, medical billing collections should be turned over to a collection agency.These procedures are simple, but they’re very important. And they can prove very effective in reducing your medical billing delinquencies. If you put these into consistent practice, you will greatly improve your medical billing collections.
Underinsured/uninsured Motorist Coverage for Motorcycle Drivers
Sunday, February 7th, 2010The High Costs Of Being Uninsured
Sunday, May 11th, 2008Health Insurance has become one of the biggest monthly expenses for most people in this country. The problem has become so big, that many people are forced to go without health insurance because they cannot afford it. That, in turn, has created a larger societal problem due to increased emergency care costs and unreimbursed coverage at medical facilities. Today, there are literally millions of ordinary people who are living without medical insurance.
There are many reasons people go without health insurance. Many are not necessarily poor, but the costs have risen so drastically that even employed people may not be able to afford basic health coverage. This is particularly true for those who do not have higher education or work part-time jobs where no health insurance is offered by their employer.
People who cannot get insurance through their employer have to look to other means of getting health insurance, most likely through an independent insurance company. In many cases, this type of insurance can turn out to be more expensive than they can afford, depending on age, medical history, and other risk factors. Consequently, many of these people and their families are forced to go without health coverage.
It is not out of the ordinary for health insurance premiums to run several hundred dollars a month for full family coverage. For most people, this represents a fairly large percentage of the monthly income for that family. This forces the family to choose between meeting other basic living expenses and health insurance coverage. When a choice has to be made between rent or groceries and health insurance, it’s pretty easy to see which will win out, particularly if there are no current health problems in the family.
Without health insurance coverage, many people resort to using the emergency room as their doctor’s office. In this country, community hospitals must accept patients without insurance. All that is necessary is a promise to pay the bill when it comes due. All too often, this does not happen because the patient is simply unable to meet the obligation.
Because there are so many unpaid bills, hospitals are generally forced to raise their fees to offset these costs. These increased fees are then passed on to patients that do have insurance. Most insurance companies will only pay a certain percentage of a hospital stay, while the rest of the bill is passed on to the patient to pay out of pocket. So, even after the insurance company pays their portion of the bill, the insured patient may have a substantial amount of money to pay out of pocket.
People without health insurance often wait until it is absolutely necessary to begin treatment of a health condition. This often results in longer and more costly treatment than would have otherwise been required if the same patient had had access to medical treatment earlier. Again, lack of basic health insurance coverage has caused the cost of medical treatment to be higher than it should, which in turn raises the cost of health coverage for everyone.
Not having health insurance ultimately costs more than it would to have procured the insurance in the first place. For the individual, it usually results in longer, more serious medical conditions, higher out of pocket costs, and sometimes death due to lack of treatment. For society, lack of insurance results in higher costs for everyone. There is no doubt that something needs to be done to ensure people have access to high quality health care in a way that is affordable.
Veto of health legislation would leave millions of children uninsured.
Wednesday, March 26th, 2008Product Description
This digital document is an article from The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR), published by Thomson Gale on October 1, 2007. The length of the article is 585 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Veto of health legislation would leave millions of children uninsured.(Editorials)(Editorial)
Author: Gale Reference Team
Publication: The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR) (Newspaper)
Date: October 1, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Page: A9
Article Type: Editorial
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Veto of health legislation would leave millions of children uninsured.
Uninsurable for Health Insurance?
Tuesday, September 4th, 2007Individuals with pre existing conditions like diabetes, cancer, heart disease, heart attack, stroke, kidney disease, liver disease, AIDS, depression and a long list of other health conditions, have found it almost impossible to find affordable healthcare. These health issues are causing thousands of individuals to be declined for health insurance. If you are looking for uninsurable health insurance or pre existing condition health insurance, you know how hard a task that can be.
Sometimes preexisting conditions allow an insurance company to deny your health insurance request. However, there are ways you can be provided with affordable healthcare coverage. If you can combine creative insurance planning with the knowledge and understanding of what is available, you’ll greatly reduce the chance of potential financial strain on you and your family.
Should you find an insurance company that will provide health insurance; you’ll quickly discover that this coverage is not cheap. And… the coverage will probably be limited in scope when compared to the coverage for someone with no known health problems. The bottom line is this, whatever coverage you can get, it’s probably best to take it until something better comes along.
You can find affordable health care. I have listed 6 choices below.Group Health Insurance: The best choice for those with a chronic conditions, pre existing conditions or even uninsurable. It’s really a guaranteed issue health insurance plan. With group health insurance, coverage is usually provided by your employer or your spouse’s employer. The employee will typically have little, if any, choice concerning the features of the coverage. The main advantage of group insurance: new employees will usually get coverage without any medical questions or concern for a pre existing condition. One disadvantage: coverage usually ends when the employee’s job ends.Professional Organizations: Most don’t know about this option. A number of professional organizations offer their members a health insurance program as a fringe benefit. This health insurance coverage could be a great way to stay insured if you are uninsurable or have a preexisting condition. This is really like a group health insurance policy. See if you can get access to a membership organization which offers health insurance for preexisting conditions or health insurance for the uninsurable. A valid certification or career experience may be required to join. Other associations might accept your membership without these prerequisites. Look for local and national associations. Even with a yearly membership fee, it still might be worth the money.Private Individual Health Insurance: If you are without group healthcare coverage from an employer or professional organization health plan, yet you have pre existing conditions that have caused you to be uninsurable, obtaining individual health insurance is probably going be a little tough. If you do find coverage, the premiums will often times be unaffordable. However, this still might be your best choice for now. You can always go with a better plan in the future.State Risk Pools: For individuals who have serious medical conditions, some states allow access to either private individual health insurance for uninsurable or health plans for uninsurable. These plans are defined as high-risk health insurance pools. Individuals in these state risk pools have access to comprehensive private coverage plans. However, the premiums can be very costly, often double what private health insurance would cost for someone who is healthy. Individuals may find enrollment is closed to a new enrollee or the state pool has a long waiting list. These high-risk pools are often the last resort for people who have serious pre existing conditions and are paying exorbitant fees for their insurance, or who are able to meet key state conditions for enrollment.Discount Health Cards: Companies selling discount health cards claim to save subscribers money by offering discounts on a hospital, doctor, prescription drugs, dental, vision and chiropractic care. Consumers seeking affordable healthcare may be confused by these health cards. They really are not health insurance. You’re still responsible for paying the medical bills. The discount health card simply offers a reduced price for services from participating healthcare providers. They often times make grossly inflated promises on expected benefits and savings. Use caution when purchasing these discount health cards. You may pay more than you save.Guaranteed Issue Health Insurance: For those who are uninsurable, those with preexisting conditions or someone who just can not afford or qualify for health insurance, then a guaranteed issue health insurance plan may be a good choice. These plans, known as “mini-meds”, are not to be confused with “discount health cards”. These plans are usually quite affordable and offer a considerable amount of coverage. Most pre existing conditions are covered after 12 months. Understand these plans are not basic health insurance or major medical coverage but are limited indemnity plans. This just means the plan pays benefits based on a pre-defined amount per service or procedure. Usually covered are doctor visits, hospital stays, emergency room visits, surgery, accidental death, etc. Most do not require completing medical questions or taking a physical exam to qualify.
Insurance bill would affect state’s small firms: legislation would let trade groups offer health coverage.(Health Insurance Marketplace Modernization and … An article from: San Diego Business Journal
Tuesday, July 24th, 2007Product Description
This digital document is an article from San Diego Business Journal, published by Thomson Gale on May 1, 2006. The length of the article is 819 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Insurance bill would affect state’s small firms: legislation would let trade groups offer health coverage.(Health Insurance Marketplace Modernization and Affordability Act, offers health insurance plans)
Author: Katie Weeks
Publication: San Diego Business Journal (Magazine/Journal)
Date: May 1, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 27 Issue: 18 Page: 9(1)
Distributed by Thomson Gale
The Health Insurance Reform Bill is a monstrously bad bill
Sunday, July 8th, 2007A good segment of the population have hoped that the health care reform process would do something about the three major problems of health care, spiraling out of control costs, lack of availability of insurance to much of the population, and a bureaucratic indifference that seems to have permeated the health care field.There was a good deal of hope originally for ordinary people who needed health care at a fair price. The hope was that health reforms would expand the availability of health insurance to some of the uninsured and do something to control price increases and some growing issues like a shortage of primary care providers. But, then we looked at a bill that was the product of dozens of compromises and actually ends up spinning its wheels in place. The bill is being touted as increasing insurance availability to 30million uninsured, but experts say we are actually likely to see an increase in the number of uninsured fashion forcing many Americans to drop their present coverage. Premiums, deductibles, and co-payments will continue to soar, even though we initially believed that these controls were the purpose of the reform. Ther are no guarantees that the uninsured will be able to afford new private coverage even with the promised subsidies, which will be more than three years down the road. as the expansion of Medicaid will not take place until 2013 and many states are already pushing back with concerns that the their recession-strained budgets will not allow them to pay their share in adding to their Medicaid programs, potentially leaving millions of the poorest Americans uninsured.The bill has no cost containment mechanisms for the costs of health insurance or for health care itself. In fact the insurance industy is warning that sharp premium increases will result, and these are likely to come quickly.The bill will set up a Health Benefits Advisory Committee to recommend a minimal essential benefits package that includes four tiers, insurance industry lobbyists will argue for the most minimal levels of coverage, and we can anticipate an huge number of people who are underinsured.The public option has been debated a great deal in the news, but as presently constituted it will have a minimal and a negligible role in health care reform. The Congressional Budget Office concluded it would cover only about 6 million people, which will be a very small segment of the population. By 2013, the public option will cost more than private programs, mostly due to covering sicker individuals and its inability to set reimbursement rates for physicians and hospitals as is done by Medicare. Moreover, middle-income families may be required to spend 15 to 18 percent of their income on insurance premiums and co-payments.The mega 1 trillon dollar health care bill is a potential disaster that all Americans should fear. It appearrs likely to escalate costs, limit availability of care, and do essentially all the things the political leaders promised to protect us from.More cost, less coverage, higher taxes, and a bigger burden on employers appear to be in the works.
Hospitals and Doctors – a License to Steal, or Worse?
Friday, July 6th, 2007I recently watched a special on TV about hospitals and their aggressive debt collection tactics. It was unbelievable – hospitals were trying to collect on 20 – 30 year old debts for dead people by obtaining leans and using corrupt lawyers, politicians, and lobbyists to make it so they can basically get away with theft from our uninsured and under-insured – which is now over 50% of americans.
Hospitals were aggressively using body attachments where they basically have someone arrested for an overdue bill. This is the most aggressive form of collection tactics and harassment. Most collection agencies refuse to resort to these tactics. It is debtors prison revisited – debtors prison was made illegal in the U.S. in the 19th century. It is basically a method of extreme harassment to coerce payment from the debtor. Typically it results in lost wages for the debtor, extreme hardship as many have children, etc…
Many of these hospitals have also resorted to zombie debt collecting – trying to collect on debts that are un-collectable (debtor passed away, over 10-30 years old and non-enforcable, etc…) Several hospitals have been using these tactics to threaten and coerce surviving spouses into taking on old debt. Some have even been caught trying to collect on debts expunged in bankruptcy.
The worst part is how these hospitals and doctors determine what the actual amount of the debt is. Medicare and insurance have set prices that they must agree to. But the uninsured are charged a lot more – a whole lot more. At Presbyterian Hospital in Charlotte NC the uninsured are charged many times over what the insured are assessed – 300 – 400% more and even more. With a little research it was found that this hospital, like many others, was undoubtedly taking advantage of the uninsured. If a patient tries to see how the bill came to be – itemized – it is almost in foreign code. They don’t want you to see the $100 toilet paper, 1000% markup on medicines and supplies, etc… It is a license to literally steal from the uninsured – they can make up whatever numbers they want for charges and collect very aggressively on them. This needs to be changed – these hospitals and doctors need to be policed. It used to be that the oath a doctor had to take to become a doctor was to basically help people – it has even been changed to favor the doctor and his earnings.
The hospitals say that they are having a hard time covering costs and such – right, thats why the CEO and other board members make millions of dollars for little work. The problem we have here is far greater than we can see. The healthcare industry is very unstable, prices are soaring, medicare and insurance are also increasing at rates that are causing coverages to be lowered or even dropped all together. What the U.S. needs is for the government to take back control. Limit doctor pay, hospital charges, billing practices, etc… Increase taxes on the wealthy – stop giving them so many tax breaks and shelters. The average american (low to middle class) pays around 30 – 35% in taxes, while the affluent pay only 1% or less on average. Hospitals and doctors are playing a game of legalized theft – enough is enough. Lets take back our health care system and return it to what it once was and should be – to provide low cost, fair healthcare regardless of race, financial background, etc…
