Repayment of medical bills thru settlement
Question Details: My car insurance company will reimburse for up to 10K in medical bills. When I receive my settlement I know I have to pay back the health insurance company for medical bills paid, but do I have to reimburse my car insurance company as well? This is part of my car insurance policy that I pay for every month.
Sorry, but the New Jersey attorney is wrong. If this is a Virginia accident and a Virginia insurance policy and you bought medical payments coverage, you do not need to repay your insurance company if you settle later with the defendant. It may be true in NJ, but its not true in Virginia.
I discuss this in my book, Five Deadly Sins That Can Wreck Your Accident Case, Availalbe at Amazon or at BenGlassLaw.com
Yes, there's really no difference in the legal principles involved here. Insurance is primarily designed to protect you from costs to you; if someone else turns out to be legally responsible for those costs, then whatever is collected from them, against those costs paid for by your insurance, has to be repaid. Think of it this way: the insurance paid for the care you needed, when you needed it to be paid for, even though the other driver hadn't been found liable yet, and that was a real benefit to you.
Of course, you have to consider the total of the insurance liens on your settlement, as well as the legal fees and so forth, to figure out what a settlement offer will actually put into your pocket -- and whether that's enough.
