When you are injured, the insurance companies that represent the at-fault party have come up with a whole bag of tricks that they use to try to minimize your injury, so they can minimize the amount that they have to pay. They use these tricks everywhere from the initial phone call all the way through trial.
Be on the look out for these tricks and logical fallacies the next time that you have to deal with an unscrupulous insurance company.
(1) Was Hanif correct that a tort plaintiff can recover only what has been paid or incurred for medical care, even if that is less than the reasonable value of the services rendered? (2) Even if Hanif, which involved Medi-Cal payments, reached the right result on its facts, does its logic extend to plaintiffs covered by private insurance? (3) Does limiting the plaintiff’s recovery to the amounts paid and owed on his or her behalf confer a windfall on the tortfeasor, defeating the policy goals of the collateral source rule? (4) Is the difference between the providers’ full billings and the amounts they have agreed to accept from a patient’s insurer as full payment—what the appellate court below called the “negotiated rate differential”—a benefit the patient receives from his or her health insurance policy subject to the collateral source rule? We address these questions below.
Head on over the the resources page to check out a new legal guide – How to Enter a Default Judgment in California Personal Injury/Wrongful Death Cases. If you have any question, feel free to contact Auto Accident Lawyer Noah Schwinghamer.
Personal Injury Attorney for the Sacramento Metropolitan Area, including Alta Sierra, Alta, Antelope, Applegate, Arden Arcade, Auburn, Beale Air Force Base, Broderick, Brooks, Bryte, Cameron Park, Camino, Capay, Carmichael, Carnelian Bay, Challenge-Brownsville, Citrus Heights, Clarksburg, Colfax, Coloma, Cool, Davis, Diamond Springs, Dollar Point, Dunnigan, Dutch Flat, El Dorado County, El Dorado Hills, El Dorado, El Macero, Elk Grove, Esparto, Fair Oaks, Florin, Folsom, Foothill Farms, Foresthill, Fremont Landing, Galt, Georgetown, Gold CountryGold River, Gold Run, Granite Bay, Grass Valley, Guinda, Herald, Homewood, Isleton, Kings Beach, Knights Landing, La Riviera, Laguna, Lake Wildwood, Lake of the Pines, Lincoln, Linda, Live Oak, Sutter County, Locke, Loma Rica, Loomis, Madison, Marysville, Meadow Vista, Meyers, Natomas, Sacramento, Nevada City, Nevada County, Newcastle, North Auburn, North Highlands, Olivehurst, Orangevale, Parkway-South Sacramento, Penn Valley, Penryn, Placer County, Placerville, Plainfield, Pollock Pines, Rancho Cordova, Rancho Murieta, Rio Linda, Rocklin, Rosemont, Roseville, Rumsey, Sacramento County, Sacramento Valley, Sacramento, Sheridan, Placer County, Shingle Springs, South Lake Tahoe, South Yuba City, Squaw Valley, Placer County, Strawberry, El Dorado County, Sunnyside-Tahoe City, Sutter County, Sutter, Lake Tahoe, Tahoe Vista, Tierra Buena, Truckee, Twin Bridges, Vineyard, Walnut Grove, Weimar Institute Weimar, California West Sacramento, Wheatland, Wilton, Winters, Woodland, Yolo County, Yolo, Yuba City, Yuba County, Yuba–Sutter Area, and Zamora.