Let an Attorney Help You
One of the best advantages of hiring an attorney after a car accident is having them manage your medical bills and protect you from unnecessary debt. Below are three key ways your car accident attorney can help you reduce or eliminate your medical expenses.
To understand how these strategies work, it helps to know the basics. After a car accident, your auto insurance company is responsible for paying your medical bills—even if you weren’t at fault. If you also have health insurance, it typically won’t pay your bills until your auto insurance benefits are exhausted or denied. If your health insurer does pay, they have the right to be reimbursed from your settlement.
1. Let Your Health Insurance Pay the Bill
Your health insurance has negotiated contracts with medical providers that allow them to pay less than the full amount for treatment—often 30–40% of the total bill. This means if your ambulance bill is $2,000, your health insurer might only pay $600, and the remaining balance is written off. When your claim settles, you reimburse your insurer only for the $600 they paid, not the full $2,000.
Your attorney can often negotiate with your health insurer to accept even less in reimbursement (except for Medicare or Medicaid, which generally require full repayment). Every dollar reduced from your medical bills is a dollar that stays in your pocket.
2. Let No-Fault Deny Your Bills
This might sound counterintuitive, but it can be beneficial. When your no-fault auto insurer denies a bill, your health insurance must step in and pay it—typically at a discounted rate. Later, when your attorney brings that denied bill to arbitration or settlement, Minnesota law prohibits your no-fault insurer from considering the discounted amount paid by your health insurance. They must evaluate the bill at its full value.
For example, if your $2,000 ambulance bill is paid at $600 by your health insurer and you later recover the full amount through arbitration, you only owe your health insurer the $600. The remaining $1,400 is yours to keep. Minnesota law also prohibits “balanced billing,” meaning medical providers cannot attempt to collect the remaining balance from you.[1][2]
3. Let the Bill Go to Collections
This may seem risky, but it can actually work to your advantage in certain cases. Major Minnesota medical providers have agreements with the Attorney General’s Office stating they cannot charge uninsured patients more than their best-rate insurance pricing.[3] However, hospitals sometimes attempt to sidestep this by claiming that liability insurance (from the at-fault driver) takes priority over your health insurance—a loophole that allows them to avoid reductions.
When providers refuse to negotiate fairly, letting the bill go to collections can be strategic. Collection agencies often purchase medical debt at a discount, giving your attorney leverage to settle the debt for less. If the agency is simply contracted (not the owner of the debt), waiting until the debt is sold can open new opportunities for negotiation.
Your attorney can also work with creditors to delay or prevent the debt from appearing on your credit report. Once a bill is paid, it can no longer affect your credit score under federal law changes implemented in 2018. If it still appears, you can dispute it by explaining that it stemmed from an accident and was the responsibility of the at-fault driver’s insurer.
Final Thoughts
Each of these strategies can help reduce your debt or even allow you to recover compensation from your own medical bills. If you’ve been injured in an accident and are struggling with medical expenses, call or text 612-INJURED at (612) 465-8733 for a free consultation with a Minnesota car accident lawyer.
Sources
[1] Stout v. AMCO Ins. Co., 645 N.W.2d 108 (Minn. 2002)
[2] Minnesota Statute § 62K.11