Hi everyone, my husband was riding his bike in the bike lane when he got hit by a car. Thankfully, his injuries were minor. The driver who hit him was found at fault, and her insurance (Progressive) offered to cover up to $10k in medical bills and give us $1,000 cash. We haven’t received the ER bill yet, which included some X-rays, so we’re unsure if this is a fair offer. Any advice? Thanks for your help.
Don’t agree to the settlement until all medical treatments are done and bills are in. If the medical bills are under $10k, then the settlement might be fair. But if there are follow-up visits, those won’t be covered if you settle now.
@Mia Thanks, that’s solid advice.
Can you share more details? What injuries did he get? What’s the prognosis? Did any part of his body hit the road? If it’s just a scrape or bruise, $1k seems okay, but if there’s more, it might not be enough. Think about how a jury would look at this if you went to court.
@Anderson Thanks for bringing that up. We’ll keep those factors in mind.
@Anderson After healing, sometimes people still need physical therapy. My son had a sports injury that didn’t seem bad, but after healing, it still hurt. Later, they found a bone bruise. You never know what could show up later.
@pennila Exactly, so don’t rush into a settlement if he’s still in any pain.
If it’s been some time and he doesn’t need more treatment, this offer isn’t terrible, but you could probably push them to raise it to $3k. I used to work with these kinds of claims at Progressive.
Unless he needs more medical treatment, there’s no point in hiring a lawyer. This is probably their first offer. You can try negotiating after you get the ER bill to see if $10k is enough.
@RetroRanger Make sure you get all the bills from the ER. I had an ER visit that cost $10k just for the facility, and then extra for each specialist, even though it was the same hospital.
If he’s not getting more treatment, you could ask for a little more, but the offer seems in line with what you described. A few X-rays from the ER probably won’t hit $10k.
@nanciey Depends on where you live. Urgent care can cost around $450 before insurance, and ER charges can easily reach $600 just for the radiologist.
@pennila But it shouldn’t go above $10k, right? The $10k is just a limit, not extra money they’ll give you if the bills don’t reach that amount.
@nanciey Are you an insurance adjuster or something?
@charles Which part do you disagree with?
If your insurance covers most of the medical bills, are you still eligible for the full reimbursement? I thought they only pay for what you actually paid.
@RyanYoung In many cases, you’ll have to reimburse your health insurance company for any medical costs they covered.
@Asher Thanks! So it’s up to the patient to handle that, right?
@RyanYoung Yep, the patient is responsible for making sure all charges are paid. Sometimes, health insurance won’t cover treatments if they know it’s from a car accident.
I’d wait until all the medical bills come in before accepting any offer.