Don’t become a victim of your insurance company. We share different scenarios and answer questions about why your insurance company isn’t paying you and how to rectify the situation. We also cover situations where your insurance company may request you pay them back and what you can do to fight it.
Why Won’t My Insurance Company Pay Me?
Insurance companies come up with different reasons to dispute and fight claims. A lot of times, even in a case where fault to you seems clear, they investigate and dispute or argue liability. They try to say that the accident is your fault or partially your fault and, in most cases, they try to reduce what they want to pay you by the percentage that they think you are at fault.
That’s why it is important to have an attorney who can investigate and get evidence to prove that the insurance company is wrong. The other thing that comes up often is insurance companies try to fight how much of your medical bills are related to the accident. A lot of times they will agree that the emergency room visit is related, but they will try to fight anything after the emergency room visit and there are a lot of reasons for that. Sometimes it’s based on the fact that it’s their perception that you waited too long to get treatment and oftentimes it’s because they try to blame an injury that you had in the past aggravating your new injury or injuries.
All of these are reasons why it’s important to speak with an attorney with experience who can consult with you and figure out the best way to get evidence to prove your case and get you compensated fully for your medical bills, your lost wages, and your pain and suffering.
What if I was in a Car Accident and I Have the Same Insurance as the Other Driver
If the other driver is at fault, you are getting paid through their liability insurance. Liability insurance is something that covers you if another person causes the accident. Even though the other driver may have the same liability insurance that you do, it does not mean that the insurance company is going to give you any credit or treat you better than they otherwise would. Unfortunately, when you have an auto accident, you have to prove that all of your injuries are related to the accident. That’s the only way to get the insurance company to compensate you for your medical bills.
Even in situations where you are making a claim against your own uninsured motorist coverage, that’s still the standard that has to be proved. In a lot of cases, your own insurance company and your own policy will still try to fight you and will still try to come up with ways to avoid compensating you for your injuries.
My insurance company says I have to pay them back for what they paid on my medical bills. Why?
In Ohio there is something called subrogation and in many health insurance contracts there’s a clause that says if the insurance company pays medical bills and you get money from a third party (i.e. the driver in the auto accident that hit you) then you have to pay your health insurance back.
This is one of the things that you definitely want to talk to an experienced auto accident attorney about because sometimes there are ways to get around the insurance contract and not pay your insurance company back. But even in situations where you do have to reimburse your health insurance company, a lot of the time you can negotiate and try to get a better deal and pay less than what the insurance company wants.
The situation is more complicated when you’re dealing with Medicaid, Medicare, or the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation. Government entities have different rules and you need to speak to an attorney who can help make sure that you follow all of those rules and that you get the best deal and most compensation possible from your auto accident case.
How should I get compensated if my insurance company has deemed my vehicle a total loss and I wasn’t at fault?
Getting into a car accident is a tough situation in itself. But, what happens if your car gets totaled and you weren’t even the driver at fault?
When you have been involved in an auto accident and your car was totaled, the party that was at fault should be the one to compensate you for the damage to your car. In situations where the other driver doesn’t have insurance, then you can go through your insurance company, but you may have to pay your deductible. So it is always better to try and go through the at fault party’s insurance company.