Future medical bills to be incurred as a result of a car accident, are recoverable in a personal injury case. Passengers or drivers in automobile collisions often have future bills: primary care physician, surgeon, hospital, therapy, radiology, MRI, or medication that need to be paid. Our attorneys always make sure the future bills are accounted for we never settle a case without questioning whether a client will require future accident related treatment. If so, we include a claim for the sum of money that will fairly and reasonably compensate an injured person for future health care services.
The negligent driver’s insurance company is responsible for the sum of money that will reasonably and necessarily be incurred in the future for the care of the injuries sustained by injured person due to the accident.
A doctor must state what future medical treatment is reasonable and necessary due to the collision. Generally there must be a permanent injury to support a claim for future medical bills in an automobile accident or personal injury case. For example, if there is a herniated lumbar or cervical disc and the doctor believes a discectomy or fusion neck or back surgery may be necessary we can make the claim. It would include the surgeon fees, hospital charges, radiologist charges, physical therapy appointments and any other related medical bills. Doctors charge for these reports, deposition time and trial time. Then we may retain a billing expert to assign a value or reasonable cost to future medical treatment. In very large cases, it may be necessary to retain a life care planner to describe in detail the extensive medical and related care a severely injured person requires. It is necessary for a doctor to testify and the opinion must be in terms of probability not possibility.
The defendant may dispute the value or reasonableness of the charges or necessity of the treatment, but mostly the defendant will claim the future treatment is not caused by the accident. The defendant will typically have an “independent medical examiner” examine the injured person and issue a report.
In Milwaukee, Wisconsin [nap_names id=”FIRM-NAME-1″] attorneys get the best results for future health medical bills by having your doctor or surgeon express opinions on the necessity for future medical treatment. Often this is done in response to specific questions from the attorney. The doctor’s report should be an honest and trustworthy rendition of future, accident related treatment. In trial preparation, we take great care in assembling quality proof to get the largest settlement value, we always respect the process and weigh the cost of proving the case against what is affordable to the client in auto accident or collision cases.
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