Who pays your medical bills after a truck accident in Chicago, IL
Hospital bills arrive within days. A settlement takes months. Here is who pays today, who pays in the end, and who is repaid at the close.
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- Emergency room
- Imaging
- Surgery
Who pays it, and when
- TodayYour health insurance, or Medical Payments coverage on your auto policy.
- In the endThe trucking company’s insurer, in one payment.
- At settlementWhoever paid along the way is repaid, within legal limits.
The short answer, in 3 lines.
NowThe weeks after the crash
Today, your own coverage pays.
Your health insurance. Medical Payments coverage (MedPay), the optional part of an auto policy that pays medical bills, if you have it. Medicare or Medicaid if you are covered.
LaterWhen the case resolves
In the end, the trucking company pays.
Its liability insurer pays one sum: in a settlement, an agreement that ends the claim, or after a verdict, a jury’s decision. It does not pay bill by bill along the way.
LastBefore the money is paid out
At the close, whoever paid is repaid.
Health plans, Medicare and Medicaid can claim reimbursement, repayment of what they spent, from that sum. An unpaid doctor or hospital can hold a lien, a legal claim on the settlement. Illinois law limits what a lien can take.
Who pays right now.
The trucking company’s insurer does not pay your bills as they arrive. Until the case resolves, one of these 5 sources keeps the bills from landing on you.
Your health insurance
An employer plan, a marketplace plan or a private plan. Give it to every provider and ask them to bill it first. It pays now, and that keeps accounts out of collections while the case is open.
LaterIt may claim reimbursement from the settlement. That right is called subrogation: the plan steps into your place to recover what it paid from the company at fault.
Medical Payments coverage (MedPay)
MedPay is optional on an Illinois auto policy, so check your declarations page. If you have it, it pays medical bills for you and your passengers up to its limit, whoever caused the crash.
LaterWhether MedPay is repaid depends on the wording of your policy. We read it for you.
Medicare or Medicaid
If you are covered, they pay for crash care the way they pay for any other care. Tell the hospital on the first day. Medicare calls each of these a conditional payment: it pays on condition that it is repaid if you recover from the company at fault.
LaterBoth must be repaid from the settlement. Medicare’s right is federal. Medicaid’s is in Illinois law.
Treatment on a lien or a letter of protection
Some doctors and therapists agree to treat you now and wait to be paid until the case resolves. The provider holds a lien, or your lawyer sends a letter of protection: a letter confirming that the provider is paid out of the recovery. It is a way to keep treating when you have no coverage, or when your coverage runs out.
LaterPaid from the settlement. A lien under the Health Care Services Lien Act is held to that Act’s limits.
Hospital financial assistance
Illinois hospitals must discount bills for uninsured patients who qualify by income. Before sending an uninsured patient’s bill to collections, a hospital must give you the chance to check the bill, apply for assistance and ask for a payment plan.
LaterAsk the billing office in writing how a later settlement affects the discount.
Who pays in the end.
The trucking company and its insurer, and anyone else whose negligence caused the crash. Your medical bills are one part of that claim, past and future.
You are the claimant, and the plaintiff if a lawsuit is filed. Each company you claim against is a defendant. A carrier hauling general freight across state lines must carry at least $750,000 in liability insurance. The driver, a broker, a maintenance contractor or a parts maker can share the liability, and each may have its own insurer. We explain who can be held liable on the homepage.
Damages are the money the law awards for a loss. Your medical expenses are economic damages: the losses that come with a bill or a pay stub.
The bills your insurance already paid still count. Under the collateral source rule, payments from your own coverage do not reduce what the defendant owes. You claim the reasonable value of the care, not only what came out of your pocket.
If you were partly at fault, the damages are reduced by your share. Above 50%, Illinois law bars recovery. That is why the evidence of how the crash happened matters to your medical bills too.
- Emergency carethe ambulance, the emergency room, the trauma team
- Surgery and the hospital stayincluding follow-up operations
- Rehabilitationphysical, occupational and speech therapy
- Medicationprescriptions now and for as long as you need them
- Equipmenta wheelchair, a brace, a hospital bed
- Changes to your home or cara ramp, a ground-floor bathroom, hand controls
- Future carethe treatment your doctors expect, priced by a life-care planner
TogetherYour medical expenses, past and future. In the claim they are economic damages.
Liens and paybacks: what comes out of the settlement.
Anyone who paid for your care, or treated you without being paid, can ask to be repaid when the case resolves. A lien is that claim on the settlement. Each kind follows its own rule.
Doctors and hospitals
A provider who treated you and has not been paid has a lien on your claim for its reasonable charges. The Health Care Services Lien Act limits those liens. Together they cannot exceed 40% of your settlement or verdict. No single category, such as hospitals or physicians, can take more than one-third. When liens reach 40%, doctors and other professionals share up to 20%, and hospitals and other facilities share up to 20%.
Medicare and Medicaid
Every conditional payment Medicare made for crash care must be repaid when you recover from the company at fault. That is federal law, and Medicare’s recovery office tracks it. In Illinois, Medicaid has a claim on the recovery for what it paid, and a court can reduce that claim in proportion to what you recover.
Your health plan
Most plans carry a subrogation or reimbursement clause: a right to get back what the plan paid for crash care when someone else was at fault. Under the common fund doctrine in Illinois, a plan that is repaid from money your lawyer recovered generally has to share the cost of recovering it, which lowers what it takes. Some employer plans run under federal law and follow their own terms.
With no limit, treatment liens paid as billed could take half of this settlement.
- Treatment liens, as billed
- $50,000
- Contingency fee, 40%
- $40,000
- Left for you
- $10,000
Illinois law holds the liens of doctors and hospitals to 40% of the settlement. When they reach that limit, it holds the attorney’s lien to 30%.
- Treatment liens, held to 40%
- $40,000
- Contingency fee, held to 30%
- $30,000
- Left for you
- $30,000
- Liens of doctors and hospitalsTogether, no more than 40% of the settlement or verdict, and no single category more than one-third. At the limit, doctors and other professionals share up to 20%, and hospitals and other facilities share up to 20%.
- Contingency feeA fee paid only out of a recovery. Ours is 40% of the recovery, and nothing if there is no recovery. When treatment liens reach the 40% limit, the same Act holds the attorney’s lien to 30%, unless the case is appealed.
- What you keepWhat is left after the fee, the repayments and the case costs we advanced. The limits are what protect this part.
Before any money is paid out, we check every lien against your records and negotiate it. Our contingency fee is 40% of the recovery, and there is no fee if there is no recovery. We advance the case costs, and they are repaid from the recovery. At the end you receive a written statement showing the recovery, every deduction and what goes to you. Illinois requires that statement of every lawyer working on a contingency fee.
What to do with a bill today.
6 steps. None of them needs you to pay anything, and none of them needs you to feel better first.
Keep every bill and every letter
Bills, insurance statements, pharmacy and parking receipts. One folder, or photos on your phone. Each one is a record of what the crash cost you.
Give every provider your health insurance
Ask the hospital, the ambulance company and each doctor to bill your health plan first. If your auto policy has MedPay, tell us and we open that claim too.
Open collections letters. Do not ignore them
A bill does not pause because a claim is open. Tell the billing office a lawyer is handling the claim, then send the letter to us the day it arrives.
Keep going to treatment
Go to every appointment. A gap in your records is the first thing the trucking company’s insurer points to.
Do not give the adjuster a recorded statement
The trucking company’s insurer may call and offer to help with your bills. Give them our number. Do not sign a medical authorization for them.
Send us the bills
A photo, an email or the post. We keep the ledger: what is owed, who has paid, and who expects to be repaid.
3 mistakes that cost money.
Each one is easy to make in the first weeks, and each one can be avoided with a phone call.
A gap in treatment
What it costsThe insurer argues that you healed, or that the pain came from something else. Bills after the gap become harder to claim.
Do this insteadKeep every appointment. If cost or transport is the reason you would stop, call us before you stop.
A treatment calendar, 8 weeksDrawing, not your recordsThe mistakeWith a gap: 4 weeks with nothing on the record
InsteadEvery appointment kept
A stretch of weeks with no visit on the record gives an insurer room to question the injury. Keeping every appointment closes that gap. Signing a medical authorization for the trucking insurer
What it costsA broad form can open your whole medical history, not only the crash records. Old conditions are then used to explain new injuries.
Do this insteadSign nothing the trucking company’s insurer sends. We send them the records that belong in the claim.
Your medical fileDrawing, not your recordsThe mistakeA broad authorization opens every sheet
InsteadWe send only the crash records
A broad authorization lets an insurer read records from before the crash. We send only the records that show the crash injuries. Paying out of pocket when coverage exists
What it costsYou carry a cost today that your health insurance or MedPay would have paid, at a time when you may not be working.
Do this insteadAsk which coverage applies before you pay. If you have already paid, keep the receipt. It is part of the claim.
One bill, two routesDrawing, not your billThe mistakePaid out of pocket: the cost sits with you
InsteadBilled to your coverage first
Paying a bill yourself leaves the cost with you. Billing your own coverage first lets it pay now, and it is repaid at settlement within legal limits.
Questions about medical bills.
Most of them come down to one line of a ledger: who paid this bill, and who expects to be repaid for it.
Do I have to pay my health insurance back?
Often, yes, and it comes out of the settlement, not out of your pocket. Most plans have a subrogation right: once the company at fault pays, the plan can ask for reimbursement of what it spent on crash care. In Illinois the plan generally has to share the legal cost of that recovery, which lowers what it takes. We deal with the plan for you and you see the final figure in writing.
What if I have no insurance?
You still have options. Illinois hospitals must discount bills for uninsured patients who qualify by income, and must let you apply for financial assistance before sending a bill to collections. Some doctors will treat you on a lien and wait for the case to resolve. You may also qualify for Medicaid. Call us and we go through each one with you.
Will my bills go to collections?
They can, if they are ignored. Open every letter. Give the billing office your health insurance, tell them you were hurt in a truck crash and that a lawyer is handling the claim. Send us any collections letter the day it arrives.
Should I use my health insurance if the crash was not my fault?
Yes. Under the collateral source rule in Illinois, payments from your own insurance do not reduce what the defendant owes you. Using your insurance keeps bills out of collections while the case is open.
Will the trucking company’s insurer pay my bills as they come in?
Usually not. A liability insurer pays once, when the claim settles or a court enters judgment. If an adjuster offers to cover a few early bills in return for a signature, call us before you sign anything.
How much of my settlement can medical liens take?
Under the Illinois Health Care Services Lien Act, the liens of doctors and hospitals together cannot exceed 40% of your settlement or verdict. Medicare, Medicaid and health plans are repaid under separate rules. We negotiate each one before any money is paid out.
What does the lawyer cost, and when is it paid?
We work on a contingency fee of 40% of the recovery. If there is no recovery, there is no fee. We advance the case costs, and they are repaid from the recovery. When treatment liens reach the 40% limit, the Health Care Services Lien Act holds the attorney’s lien to 30% of the settlement or verdict, unless the case is appealed.
Ambulance
- Paid by
- MedPay on your auto policy
- At the close
- Depends on the wording of the policy
Emergency room and surgery
- Paid by
- Your health insurance
- At the close
- Reimbursed from the settlement
Physical therapy
- Paid by
- Nobody yet. Treated on a lien
- At the close
- Paid from the settlement, inside the lien limits
Prescriptions
- Paid by
- You, out of pocket
- At the close
- Claimed back for you as damages
Next: see the whole claim, not only the bills.
The statute of limitations, the legal deadline to file a lawsuit, runs while the bills keep coming: 2 years from the crash in most cases, 1 year against a city or county body.
Economic damagesLosses with a bill or a pay stub
- Medical bills
- Future care
- Lost wages
- Lost earning capacity
- Property
Non-economic damagesLosses nobody sends a bill for
- Pain and suffering
- Disability
- Loss of a normal life
- Disfigurement
- Loss of consortium
The statute of limitationsThe time to file, counted from the day of the crash
- Day 0The crash
- 1 yearA city or county body
- 2 yearsMost injury claims
- GuideWhat a truck accident claim can payMedical care, lost pay, pain, and what a family loses. Every part of a claim, explained.
- ToolCase value estimatorSee the factors that move a claim up or down. A range, never a promise.
- ToolDeadline checkerFind the filing deadline that applies to your crash.
Send us the bills and tell us what happened. We tell you who should be paying each one. The review is free.
Sources
- Illinois Health Care Services Lien Act, 770 ILCS 23/10 (liens of health care professionals and providers: the 40% total limit, the one-third limit per category, the 20% and 20% split, and the 30% limit on attorneys’ liens once health care liens reach 40%)
- Illinois Department of Insurance, Auto Insurance Shopping Guide (required coverages; Medical Payments coverage listed as optional)
- Medicare Secondary Payer Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1395y(b)(2) (conditional payments and Medicare’s right to reimbursement)
- Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Conditional Payment Information (how Medicare recovers a conditional payment)
- Illinois Public Aid Code, 305 ILCS 5/11-22 (the Department’s charge on a Medicaid recipient’s recovery)
- Illinois Fair Patient Billing Act, 210 ILCS 88/30 (steps a hospital must take before a collection action)
- Illinois Hospital Uninsured Patient Discount Act, 210 ILCS 89 (discounts for uninsured patients who qualify by income)
- Supreme Court of Illinois, Wills v. Foster, 229 Ill. 2d 393 (2008) (collateral source rule and the reasonable value of medical care)
- Supreme Court of Illinois, Scholtens v. Schneider, 173 Ill. 2d 375 (1996) (common fund doctrine and health plan reimbursement)
- Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct of 2010, Rule 1.5(c) (contingency fee agreement in writing and closing statement)
- Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, 49 CFR 387.9 (minimum liability insurance for motor carriers)
- Illinois Code of Civil Procedure, 735 ILCS 5/2-1116 (modified comparative negligence)
- Illinois Code of Civil Procedure, 735 ILCS 5/13-202 (statute of limitations for personal injury, 2 years)
- Illinois Local Governmental and Governmental Employees Tort Immunity Act, 745 ILCS 10/8-101 (1 year for claims against a local public entity)
Tell us what happened. We will tell you what happens next.
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- NowYou call or send the form.
- Within the hourA lawyer calls you back.
- The day you retain usThe preservation letter goes out.