Personal Injury Tips: Negotiating your Medical Bills

May 1, 2017

Negotiating Your Medical Bills

“A hospital should also have a recovery room adjoining the cashier's office.”


― Francis O'Walsh


After a settlement has been reached in a personal injury case, whether it is only with the at-fault party, or in conjunction with your own UM Insurance, it is time to negotiate the medical bills. This is one of the last steps to the process, but one of the most important. In the end, this could end up saving you thousands and thousands of dollars.


As an example, let’s say that your Chiropractic bill has an outstanding balance of $12,000.00. The first thing you want to do is determine if this is the correct amount. How do you do that? Well, initially, you want to look at the billing ledger and make sure that you were actually present for each of the days listed. Then, you want to get a copy of your PIP Log (Personal Injury Protection Log) from your auto insurance or your Health Insurance Log (from your own health insurance company). Basically, you want to get a record from whomever paid any of your bills. Once you get that ledger, you then want to see how much money was actually paid to your various medical providers.


Going back to our previous example, let’s say that your doctor billed out $20,000.00 to your insurance company for his total bills (whether it is your car insurance or health insurance) and was actually paid the reduced amount of $8,000.00. If it was your Auto Insurance that paid the money and the accident happened in the state of Florida, then your insurance company would have paid 80% of your medical bills (that’s how the PIP Law works in Florida and many other states around the country). It’s time to do some basic math now. So, to determine the actual amount you owe, you would take $8,000.00 and divide it by .8 (for 80%). That would give you 10,000. You then subtract 8,000 from it and you end up with $2,000.00. That is your actual outstanding bill. What the chiropractor did was called “balance billing.” That’s not the way the law works though. Your insurance paid 80% of the bill at their reduced rate. You are only responsible for the remaining 20%. So, in truth, your bill is only $2,000.00, not $12,000.00. That’s the number you want to start with in your attempts to reduce your bill. Now, you want to try to reduce it even further. You will then send the doctor a Bill Reduction Letter. I recommend sending the letter in the mail and by fax as well.


Remember, the best thing you can do is to call the Ticktin Law Group at (954) 570-6757 as soon as possible. By speaking with an experienced personal injury lawyer and going over all the facts of your particular claim, you will get a much better idea of what steps you should already be taking, what the best way is to proceed with your case and what compensation you may be entitled to.