Late last month, I took a case to jury trial in Clay County, Missouri involving a 40-year old man who fell on a white foreign substance in the driveway of a house where he had been  hired by the owners to do some remodeling work.  The owners denied that the white foreign substance was present, but I had another co-worker that testified she had seen it just a few days before my plaintiff worker fell.  In the fall, the worker sustained a contusion or bruise to the spinal cord and also had to undergo a fusion surgery in his neck to relieve pressure from a herniated disc to the spinal cord.  The insurance company for the owners offered $10,000 on the first day of trial, and after four days of trial, the jury returned a verdict of $650,000 less 25% of the fault to the worker.  Given the facts and circumstances, it was a good result.

Last time we discussed the virtues of underinsured motorist coverage.  Another type of coverage that is often overlooked is medical payments coverage.  Medical payments coverage makes payment on behalf of a victim of an automobile accident for all reasonable medical expenses incurred as a result of that accident.  The coverage is often limited to you or any person that is in your vehicle when an injury occurs.  The coverage does not concern itself with the fault of any driver, but simply requires an injury in an insured vehicle.

If medical expenses result from an injury within the insured vehicle, the insurance carrier will pay up to the coverage limits for all treatment.  Oftentimes this payment is in addition to other overlapping insurance coverages that might apply.  Let me give you an example of the practical benefits of this type of coverage.

“Lisa” was driving her insured truck when it was negligently rear-ended by an individual that had been drinking.  Lisa was taken by ambulance to a local hospital where she received several thousand dollars worth of treatment and released.  She had a significant neck injury and followed up with an orthopedic doctor and had many weeks of physical therapy.

The hospital bills and subsequent treatment were submitted to Lisa’s individual health insurance policy.  These medical bills were all paid by this private insurance.  In addition to that benefit, a claim was made against the at-fault driver’s insurance company for Lisa’s damages.  A settlement was entered into with that company for all harms experienced by Lisa including compensation for the medical bills which had been paid by Lisa’s private health insurance company.

In addition to these claims, Lisa also made a claim against her own automobile insurance company under the medical payments coverage provision of her policy.  The medical bills were submitted to her automobile insurance company and, despite the fact that she received compensation for these bills through overlapping insurance, she was able to obtain payment from her automobile insurance carrier directly to her for these bills.  From a practical standpoint this helped her cover deductibles and co-payments that applied to her health insurance and represented compensation for the perceived inadequacies of the liability coverage settlement.

Lisa had paid premiums for all of these coverages and used them to her advantage in order to fully compensate her for her injuries resulting from the automobile wreck.  Don’t make the mistake of purchasing coverages that overlap and then failing to initiate claims to utilize these policy provisions.  Allow your insurance to work to your advantage.  If you have any questions regarding medical payments coverages or any other type of accident related issues, please feel free to give me a call and I will be happy to discuss them with you at no obligation to you.