Many doctors who have treated personal injury victims have themselves become victims due to nonpayment of the medical bills. The desire of physicians to help the personal injury patient is often peppered with the fear that the mounting bills will not be paid or may not be paid for several years. However, there are ways to significantly reduce the risk of delayed or nonpayment for this type of care. In fact, the automobile injury case affords the doctor many avenues of insurance coverage not available in other types of case.
This article will discuss the best means of protecting your rights to be paid, utilizing available insurance and avoiding the pitfalls inherent in these cases.
Know Your Patient's Attorney
Contrary to political grandstanding, not all injuries are compensated by the court system through awards of millions of dollars. In fact, a great number of juries render verdicts for the defendant and give no money to the injured party. Ask the patient's attorney for an evaluation of the likelihood of success, especially if you are asked to wait for your money until after settlement or trial. Your bill is an extension of credit and you are entitled to consider whether you should invest in this case. A skilled attorney will want to cooperate with the doctor for many reasons including the need for medical reports and expert testimony at trial.
The good attorney should search for and help process insurance in order to pay the medical bills as they accumulate. Unfortunately, many attorneys believe that their only obligation is to handle the legal case without regard to payment of the medical bills. Even worse, many lawyers will help clients obtain the insurance coverage payments and advise them that they are entitled to keep this money even if it means a failure to pay the doctor.
While competent counsel cannot guarantee a win at trial, an inexperienced or ineffective attorney will have a difficult task contending with the high-caliber law firms hired by the insurance companies. Even if no suit is filed, an attorney who does not specialize in this area of law will generally not obtain the same level of settlements as experienced counsel. Finally, be extremely skeptical of the patients who are handling their own personal injury cases; insurance companies will take advantage of this situation. Doctors treating self-help patients should insist on "pay as you go" or refer them to a lawyer.
Medical Payments Coverage
Most automobile insurance policies have medical payments coverage, which is a "no-fault" source of payment for medical bills. If this type of coverage is included in a Virginia policy, there must be a minimum of $2,000 available (typical coverage is $5,000) over a maximum period of 3 years treatment. Policies issued in other States have similar provisions. The medical office should process these bills to obtain direct payment to the office. Allowing the patient, to process these bills may result in loss of this income. Before you rely on the attorney, find out his philosophy in this respect because many attorneys consider this money to be the property of the client. The patient's insurance agent can explain the amount of coverage available.
Do not expect the insurance company to offer information regarding the availability of coverage. Quite often, the insurance company will tell you to go to the liable party's insurance even when there is medical payments coverage. An attorney's call or letter should overcome this difficulty.
Reimbursement is only required for "reasonable and necessary expenses." Under this standard the insurance companies regularly claim that the treatment was excessive, that certain procedures were not needed or that the bills were abnormally high for the type of injury. They will request the medical records, narratives and other proof; give them what is reasonable, but do not accept a determination not to pay. The doctor's office must often advocate on behalf of the patient and should get the lawyer to insist on payment.
Do not assume a lack of coverage. Medical expense coverage may be available to many unexpected parties, such as relatives of policyholders even when they are in someone else's vehicle or are pedestrians. Read the policy. Ask the lawyer to make inquiries.
Health Insurance
Under Virginia law, medical bills must be paid by the health insurance carrier even if there is a personal injury-third party claim. Health insurance should be handled in the normal manner.
The medical office should not agree to any reimbursement to the health insurance company by way of assignment, subrogation or other type of pay back. Except in limited circumstances, health insurance policies issued in Virginia cannot require repayment to the insurance company. Therefore, do not reimburse any insurance company for payment received on a paid bill without the specific permission of the patient, as this may cause tremendous problems in obtaining return of this money by the patient from the insurance company.
Lien or Assignment
The patient and the lawyer should always be required to sign a lien/assignment form which requires the lawyer to pay the medical office out of the patient's portion of any settlement or judgment. Be sure the form is sent to the law firm. Current billing should be sent in order to be sure that the latest amount is paid.
Oral promises to pay out of settlement are not enforceable. Just sending the bills to the law firm will only amount to a total lien of $300 under the Virginia Code. Do not send this billing and medical records information directly to the insurance companies, unless instructed to do so by the law firm.
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The above is not meant to replace legal counsel. If you'd like to speak to one of Gross & Romanick's lawyers, please call 703-273-1400 or fill out our online Information Request form here.
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Statute Of Frauds
Based on its name you might think that the Statute of Frauds has something to do with criminal or civil fraud, but it doesn't. The name "Statute of Frauds" actually refers to a law passed by the British Parliament in 1677, and the name has been retained through the centuries. It specifies which kinds of contracts must be in writing in order to be enforceable. Its purpose is to prevent the setting up of supposed agreements and then supporting them by perjury.
The most common applications of the Statute of Frauds are as follows:
Holding a person responsible for the promise to pay the debt of another
Contracts for the sale of real estate
Leases for real estate over 1 year
Agreements which cannot be performed within 1 year
Sale of personal property over $5,000
Sale of goods over $500, unless the buyer accepts the goods
Agency agreements
While the Statute requires a written agreement, almost any writing sufficient to indicate some kind of agreement between the parties will suffice. However, the "writing" must be signed by the party who is being charged. Thus, the venerable Statute of Frauds is still an important and influential part of modern law.
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The above is not meant to replace legal counsel. If you'd like to speak to an attorney, please contact us at 703-273-1400 or by filling out our online information request form.
The most common applications of the Statute of Frauds are as follows:
Holding a person responsible for the promise to pay the debt of another
Contracts for the sale of real estate
Leases for real estate over 1 year
Agreements which cannot be performed within 1 year
Sale of personal property over $5,000
Sale of goods over $500, unless the buyer accepts the goods
Agency agreements
While the Statute requires a written agreement, almost any writing sufficient to indicate some kind of agreement between the parties will suffice. However, the "writing" must be signed by the party who is being charged. Thus, the venerable Statute of Frauds is still an important and influential part of modern law.
***
The above is not meant to replace legal counsel. If you'd like to speak to an attorney, please contact us at 703-273-1400 or by filling out our online information request form.
Monday, May 16, 2011
Legal Implications of IP Addresses
A plethora of recent legal issues ranging from the prosecution of child pornography to the enforcement of civil copyrights have relied upon the IP address of a computer to identify individuals. However, an IP address is not an individual according to the United States District Court of the Central District of Illinois. Prompted by a recent MSNBC article, the legal system is beginning to realize that an IP address does not necessarily link an individual to certain computer use; in fact, the same IP address can be used by many individuals with access to the computer in question, or by visitors with access to the same wireless router. VPR Int'l v. Does 1 - 1017, Case No. 11-2068 (C.D. Ill. 2011).
An IP address (or Internet Protocol Address) is, at its most basic, a series of 4 numbers ranging from 0 to 255, each separated by a period (.). These numbers are used to uniquely identify each and every computer connected to the internet in much the same way that a physical address is used to uniquely identify each and every physical location in the world. When information is sent out over the internet or when information is received on the internet, it is labeled with both the IP address of the sender and of the recipient. Much like a letter is addressed with both the address of the recipient and the return address of the sender.
Complicating this issue is the concept of a subnet. For the sake of simplicity, think of a subnet as the city and state of an address. Every router connected to the internet has a unique IP address within one subnet and then each computer connected to that router has a unique IP address within the router’s subnet. Typically, it is not the IP address of an individual computer that is broadcast over the internet to send and receive information, but rather the IP address of the router. The router, as the name implies, then routes the requested information to the computer that requested it. Think of a router as the mailroom for a large business. All of the employees of the business have access to the mailbox and can receive mail at the business address and the mailroom sorts the mail to go to individual employees.
Of course, this architecture leads to a situation where the IP address visible on the internet as downloading illegal content such as child pornography or posting vicious hate filled threats on Facebook could belong to multiple computers. An internet service provider would only be able to identify the IP address of the router that passed on an individual computer’s request for information; the service provider would be unable to identify the individual computer.
Most households own a wireless router. Many wireless routers are “unsecured”. This means that any person with a laptop, iPad or Wi-Fi device can utilize another person’s wireless router without the use of a password. An unsecured router is like an unlocked mailroom; anyone in the building can go in and send a package or take a package, even if it is a package that is not intended for them.
Imagine trying to identify the sender of a mail bomb based solely on the address of the unlocked mailroom for a large business. Any of the employees of the business are suspects as are any person that could have walked into the mailroom when the package was sent. This is exactly the problem involved in tracking down copyright infringers or child pornographers on the internet. A subpoena directed to an internet service provider to identify the owner of an IP address can only identify the router that requested the information. If the router is unsecured, then the suspects could include all the users of the router, together with the neighbors that are in range of the router’s wireless signal and all the cars that could have been parked nearby or driven through. Even if the router is secured, the suspects include anyone with knowledge of the router’s password and anyone that could have stolen the router’s password.
Therefore, without some other information, such as statements, admissions or other physical evidence, it is nearly impossible to identify the individual that was sitting in the computer chair at the time that the illicit content was downloaded or at the time that the harassing message was posted to Facebook.
An IP address (or Internet Protocol Address) is, at its most basic, a series of 4 numbers ranging from 0 to 255, each separated by a period (.). These numbers are used to uniquely identify each and every computer connected to the internet in much the same way that a physical address is used to uniquely identify each and every physical location in the world. When information is sent out over the internet or when information is received on the internet, it is labeled with both the IP address of the sender and of the recipient. Much like a letter is addressed with both the address of the recipient and the return address of the sender.
Complicating this issue is the concept of a subnet. For the sake of simplicity, think of a subnet as the city and state of an address. Every router connected to the internet has a unique IP address within one subnet and then each computer connected to that router has a unique IP address within the router’s subnet. Typically, it is not the IP address of an individual computer that is broadcast over the internet to send and receive information, but rather the IP address of the router. The router, as the name implies, then routes the requested information to the computer that requested it. Think of a router as the mailroom for a large business. All of the employees of the business have access to the mailbox and can receive mail at the business address and the mailroom sorts the mail to go to individual employees.
Of course, this architecture leads to a situation where the IP address visible on the internet as downloading illegal content such as child pornography or posting vicious hate filled threats on Facebook could belong to multiple computers. An internet service provider would only be able to identify the IP address of the router that passed on an individual computer’s request for information; the service provider would be unable to identify the individual computer.
Most households own a wireless router. Many wireless routers are “unsecured”. This means that any person with a laptop, iPad or Wi-Fi device can utilize another person’s wireless router without the use of a password. An unsecured router is like an unlocked mailroom; anyone in the building can go in and send a package or take a package, even if it is a package that is not intended for them.
Imagine trying to identify the sender of a mail bomb based solely on the address of the unlocked mailroom for a large business. Any of the employees of the business are suspects as are any person that could have walked into the mailroom when the package was sent. This is exactly the problem involved in tracking down copyright infringers or child pornographers on the internet. A subpoena directed to an internet service provider to identify the owner of an IP address can only identify the router that requested the information. If the router is unsecured, then the suspects could include all the users of the router, together with the neighbors that are in range of the router’s wireless signal and all the cars that could have been parked nearby or driven through. Even if the router is secured, the suspects include anyone with knowledge of the router’s password and anyone that could have stolen the router’s password.
Therefore, without some other information, such as statements, admissions or other physical evidence, it is nearly impossible to identify the individual that was sitting in the computer chair at the time that the illicit content was downloaded or at the time that the harassing message was posted to Facebook.
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