Medical Bill Payment In Louisiana

An injury-related hospital bill often exceeds $100,000. Typically, if the injury occurred at work, health insurance companies refuse to cover these costs, citing liability concerns. Most families live hand to mouth. They cannot possibly afford to pay these expenses out of pocket. As outlined below, workers’ compensation pays all reasonably necessary medical expenses. Furthermore, in Louisiana, job injury victims may normally choose their own doctor.

These important benefits are available, but insurance companies do not simply give them away. In order to obtain fair compensation for your serious work injury, you need a New Orleans workers’ compensation attorney. Fair compensation for a work injury includes total medical bill payment, and not just the bills the insurance company is willing to pay.

Benefits Available

Hospital bills are only part of the picture. A serious injury usually involves extended care, and workers’ compensation pays for all these expenses. Some examples include:

• Medevac: Many Louisiana workers are seriously injured in remote areas. If they must be airlifted to a hospital, the brief helicopter ride could cost tens of thousands of dollars. Workers’ compensation pays this and other transportation expenses.
• Specialist Referral: Emergency Room physicians are normally excellent triage and treatment doctors. But in advanced injury cases, they are often a little over their heads, and they know it. Since Louisiana job injury victims may choose their own doctors, these limitations are not a problem.
• Medical Devices/Prescription Drugs: We put these two categories together because they are both vital to full recovery, they are both expensive, and workers’ compensation pays for both. The money does not stop once victims get their discharge papers.
• Physical Therapy: Most serious injury victims can expect several months of physical therapy. For brain injury victims, the therapy might be several years. Brain injury therapists must train uninjured parts of the brain to take over lost functions.

Occupational disease victims, like hearing loss victims, are entitled to similar benefits. However, these claims usually involve some unique procedural issues. More on that below.

Procedural Issues

Typically, the insurance company pays medical bills directly. If the insurance company drags its feet, as is often the case, work injury victims still do not need to pay money upfront. Most attorneys send letters of protection to medical providers. These letters guarantee payment when the case ends.

As a bonus, a New Orleans workers’ compensation lawyer can usually negotiate with providers and secure lower fees. That could mean the victim gets to pocket more of the settlement money.

Pre-existing conditions often contribute to some trauma injuries and many occupational diseases. Let’s go back to the hearing loss example. Most people hear loud noises everywhere, and not just at work.

Full compensation is usually available in these situations. According to the eggshell skull rule, insurance companies cannot use a victim’s vulnerabilities as an excuse to reduce or deny compensation. As for non-work aggravations, an attorney must simply prove that the job injury aggravated the pre-existing condition, as opposed to the other way around.

Count on a Diligent Attorney

Job injury victims need not worry about medical bills. For a free consultation with an experienced workers’ compensation lawyer in New Orleans, contact Lunsford, Baskin & Priebe, PLLC. Home, virtual, and hospital visits are available.

Resource:

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3217554/