Legal Question in Personal Injury in Indiana
Hello, I was wanting to run this by you and get your input and thank you in advance for your input. Great site.
My daughter was in an auto collision recently; she was 40 weeks pregnant at the time. She was at a complete stop do to traffic and was hit from behind on the rear drivers side by a semi-truck & trailer. She was thrown forward and back also hitting her abdomen on the steering wheel. She started experiencing abdomen pain. She was then taken by ambulance to the hospital where they admitted her for a 24-hour observation of the baby. They did release her and the OB doctor told her they would see if she went into labor in next few days, if not they would induce the next week. This has been a couple of months ago, the insurance company for the truck driver has sent us an email accepting full responsibility. They have already paid for the repair of her vehicle. They are offering to pay for medical, loss wages and are offering 1,500 to settle claim.
The biggest concern has been with the welfare of the baby, before and even after delivery. They did have to be induced the next week and everything seemed to be ok, several weeks later the baby had to be taken to the emergency room, they could not figure what was wrong. He did have a temperature so they admitted him for several days and ran numerous tests including a spinal tap, never could conclude the problem. She is now even more concerned with what might come up, however she also wants to move forward.
Her health insurance has paid money on all of her bills for the 2 days in the hospital for the 24-hour observation. The amounts totaled just under 7,200 not including ambulance bill. However, the break-down is as follows. Billing Adjustments in amount of 5100 were made and the amount the insurance paid was approx. 1,550 leaving my daughter to pay 550. Her health insurance provider has now sent us a letter requesting information in regards to the services rendered for those 2 days-was it because of an auto accident.
If the insurance provider tries to take back the money they paid out, will the new amount owed include the adjusted amount that was originally negotiated by the health insurance provider?
The Truck driver�s insurance company is saying they will only pay the health provider directly for what is billed. Should we not expect them to pay my daughter the total amount of the original bills so that she can pay the bills herself after her health insurance takes back the payments they made?
Or can we request a total bill amount from someone (either the health insurance provider for what they will be looking to get back or the service provider for what they will expect if the health provider takes back their payment.) She is not trying to make additional money off these charges, however does not want to be stuck with medical bills after all the pull backs or adjustments.
Then the 2nd part of my inquiry is about the settlement amount. The total if you were to take into account full medical, (approx. 7,200), ambulance (650), lost wages (1,200) Auto repair (3,800) the special damages = 12,850. They were offering 1,500 in general damages to settle, we were thinking of starting at 9,500. What are your thoughts?
1 Answer from Attorneys
You really have too much information and facts and questions to be able to answer in this space. Besides everything you mentioned, you have to take into account the nature of our jurisdiction, whether someone makes a good impression to a jury, costs of litigation and other factors. You are best served to consult with a personal injury attorney in person in this case and run by all of the facts.
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