Personal injuries. They can be tragic accidents and most of the time, they are seen as preventable injuries.
There are about 62 million injuries per year in the United States that require medical attention. Unfortunately, not everybody that gets injured can afford to cover the medical bills associated with it.
That is why there are personal injury lien doctors out there.
What is a personal injury lien doctor? How can they help you while you are hurt? What do you need to know about personal injury liens?
These are five of the most important things.
1. They Will Treat You
Some people may believe that doctors are lifeless and will refuse to treat anybody that cannot pay upfront. This is simply not true, especially with lien doctors.
These doctors will do what is necessary to make sure that you recover in good health. They are not the type of people that will make you show your insurance card before they even begin treatment.
If anything, these doctors will work with you to come up with a plan to pay your medical bills if you cannot do it at the time of your visit. So, do not let this be the reason that you do not get the medical care that you need.
2. Health Insurance Is Not Needed
It is no secret for Americans that healthcare can get expensive. The average cost of health insurance in the United States is $560 per month.
For some people, that can be a good chunk of their income. Because health insurance is so expensive, some people elect to not pay for it. Others can no longer afford to pay for it and end up going without it.
Then, a situation may occur where they end up in a hospital with no health insurance. The medical bill may be staggering and if you are in this situation, you may not know what you are going to do to pay it back.
This is where injury liens come in. If you meet a doctor that is willing to accept a lien, you can get yourself out of this bind.
Instead of demanding payment from you right away, a doctor may agree to wait until you get compensated for a personal injury case. They should have an idea of how strong your case is and sometimes, they may even participate in your case.
The point is that a personal injury lien can give you an alternative option to pay your medical bill if you have no health insurance.
3. Negotiating the Lien
Once you and your doctor agree to the possibility of a lien, you are going to have to draw up a contract. The document you need here is called a Letter of Protection.
A Letter of Protection notes the exact lien terms you have with your doctor. It will note how much was agreed upon between the two of you and the other conditions that need to be met for this letter to be upheld.
Now, there may not always be wiggle room to negotiate here. A doctor may come up with a flat rate and say you owe a certain amount of money on your bill.
However, the worst they can say is no. So, you are encouraged to try to negotiate this in any way possible. Sometimes, you may be better off offering them a percentage of the settlement than agreeing to a flat rate.
4. Keeping Your Credibility
The next thing you will want to be sure of is how good a lien doctor can be as a witness for you. They may need to be called to the stand as an expert witness or just as someone that can verify the severity of your injuries.
In either case, you are going to want to have a good feeling about your doctor if this situation comes up. Most of the time, you will have a personal injury lawyer who either has connections to these doctors or knows how to sniff them out.
However, the wrong lien doctor can hurt your case. The reason is that your insurance company and/or the defendant may use them as an excuse to attack your credibility.
Think about it. If the opposition knows about your lien agreement, they may assume the doctor has as much to gain as you do from a settlement. So, they may attack that doctor and hurt both of your credibility.
Make sure you find a doctor that can stand tall under that pressure.
5. Prepare for a Loss
Finally, you need to prepare for the event that you lose your personal injury case. Normally, what happens after that is that a lien doctor will delay your bill until the case is over. However, if you lose the case, you are going to have to come up with another way to pay your medical bill.
Try to keep some money on the side in case the worst-case scenario happens with your case. The last thing you want to have is a lost settlement with no other alternatives to pay all of the people you may owe money to.
Find Personal Injury Lien Doctors
These are just five things that you need to keep in mind before you use personal injury lien doctors.
They are not heartless, so they will take care of your injuries even if you have no health insurance. Negotiate the lien as best you can, prepare for your credibility to be attacked, and prepare for the event that you lose your personal injury case.
Do you need an injury doctor that accepts a lien? Find your doctor here.