Got Medicare? It WILL impact your injury claim
If you have Medicare and you’re involved in a personal injury claim in North Carolina, that fact WILL have an impact on the resolution of your claim.
Medicare would like to not pay for treatment that someone else is paying for, but in a liability state like NC, liability coverage doesn’t pay for treatment as you go, which means there’s a dispute as to payment and there is no coverage when the bill is incurred so Medicare CAN AND WILL pay for your injury related treatment.
BUT, they are going to want their money back! The details of how we go about that process are for another post, but suffice it to say that if Medicare paid for any treatment related to your claim – PCP, Urgent Care, Emergency Department, etc. – then we HAVE to ask Medicare what they want back and we have to go through that process.
This is not the end of the world! It’s really not that onerous. Now, their system is in some ways backwards, but it is something that we can work through and resolve over time. The main things that you need to take away from this is that a) If Medicare even might have been billed for accident related treatment, I HAVE to jump through their hoops – even if you don’t want me to, and b) it will add a bit of time to your injury claim process. As to how much time it might add, I can’t say for sure, but generally we’re talking weeks, not months, so it’s really not that big of a deal.
So if you have Medicare and you are involved in a North Carolina personal injury claim, just know that we’re going to have to deal with Medicare and it’s going to take a little longer than you might hope, but if you have good representation, it should all be OK. Call me at 919-929-2992.