A Virginia Beach Personal Injury Attorney Explains Medicare Paybacks Out Of Car Accident Case Settlements

With the aging population, more and more cases that I see each day in my practice devoted exclusively to accident and injury cases, involve Medicare as one of the payers of the bills. If you have Medicare and they paid some of the bills that were used to pursue a personal injury case against an at-fault driver, then you are required to pay the government back some percentage of what they paid out through Medicare. An experienced Virginia Beach personal injury attorney like myself knows that we have to pay Medicare back and make sure that you know that at the beginning of your case if you are a senior citizen or someone that has Medicare because of a disability. The last thing you want to find out at the end of the case that you have to pay Medicare back and feel the attorney was not clear and upfront with you about that at the beginning of the matter.

Medicare is a great system that allows bills from hospitals and doctors to be paid even if you were involved in an accident that led to the injuries that required the medical treatment. Sometimes there is some confusion with the hospital billing department amount whether or not they should use your Medicare first, but the answer is they definitely should because most of the time a personal injury case, especially with serious injuries, is not going to get resolved immediately. You want the bills to be paid first by Medicare even if you have to pay them back at a later time.

One thing that the attorney can do is to negotiate with Medicare, in certain situations, where high payback to the government would be unfair. There are systems by which waiver of the Medicare payback or reduction of it can be accomplished. One problem in this regard is that Medicare is very slow to assert their claim and to resolve them. What I have learned to do in my practice is to get in Medicare as early as possible so that we keep the ball moving forward at all times so that by the time the case is resolved we know what is going to happen with Medicare at the same time, or soon thereafter.

If you are a senior citizen or someone who is on Medicare and get hurt in a car accident in Virginia it is good to have an experienced personal injury attorney who knows how Medicare works and what has to happen as far as paybacks of past medical bills associated with the accident.

The Norfolk, Virginia Beach and Hampton, VA personal injury law firm, Cooper Hurley, handles automobile, truck, and motorcycle injuries as well as wrongful death, railroad injury cases and medical malpractice. John Cooper and Jim Hurley have more than 40 years of combined experience in specializing in auto injury as well as other accident claims. Attorney John Cooper has been named to Virginia “Super Lawyers” since 2010. Cooper Hurley represents people hurt in accidents in Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Chesapeake, Hampton, Newport News and throughout VA, and always put the best interests of our clients first. The firm is recognized by other lawyers as “AV” by Martindale-Hubbell, a national attorney rating service, for our top level of legal skill and highest ethical standards. Our motto is: “Your Injury. Our fight.” If you need help or advice about a serious injury, please call us at (757) 455 -0077 or contact us through this website.