by dgorski24 » Mon Sep 05, 2011 04:10 pm
i live in nevada and work as a building inspector and was on my way to work on the freeway at 3am..i was driving the speed limit with my cruise control on when i noticed headlights coming up behind me at a high rate of speed...the vehicle rear ended me at a speed in excess of 100mph and caused my Chevy Tahoe to go into a spinning motion...i just remember holding on to the steering wheel thinking i was going to die as i hit various concrete walls and barriers...when my truck came to a stop i was on the other side of the freeway...a motorist stopped after he saw a car about 200 yards in front of me with a guy trying to flee the scene covered in blood...the motorist called 911 and the police arrived and i was put in a neck brace and loaded into a ambulance to be taken to the hospital..i was given an i.v. while in the ambulance and told them i had neck and back pain as well as pain across my chest from my seat belt..once at the hospital i had a CAT scan and numerous x rays..all came back negative and was told i suffered a mild concussion...while at the hospital, the police came to get my statement and said they caught the other driver at a gas station trying to call a cab..he was given a sobriety test and failed..he also had a revoked drivers license due to other numerous violations...he also gave the police the name of his insurance company...when i was released from the hospital they gave me a note stating i should not work for a week...the officer also told me where my truck was towed to...i called my insurance company to report the collision..they told me to go and get my belongings out of my truck and let the tow company know that someone would be coming to take my truck to another location...i got my belongings out of my truck and returned home after stopping to fill my prescriptions given to me at the hospital...my auto insurance company set up a rental car for me to use in the meantime..a few days later, they notified me that they were declaring my truck a total loss, they sent me a form to sign so they could pay off the remaining balance of my loan and send me a check for the balance..at this time, my agent let me know that the driver of the other vehicle did not have current insurance...i do have uninsured motorist coverage on my policy..my question is, what do i do next?? i had to go out and purchase another vehicle, missed a week of work, am going to have numerous medical bills and have not been able to have a full night of sleep since the collision..i wake up numerous times during the night having nightmares about the accident...i have never been in an accident to this extent and am looking for some direction on what to do next...any type of input would be appreciated. Thanks..
Posted: Mon Sep 05, 2011 08:31 pm Post Subject:
What you do next is up to you. You uninsured motorist bodily injury coverage will act just like the other person's insurance. So it will be no different then if he had insurance and you were dealing with them. They need to have all of your medical bills in order to consider you claim. How much are your limits? If they are low than they may just offer you your limits. I'd start with knowing what your UMBI limit is.
Posted: Tue Sep 06, 2011 12:11 am Post Subject: tcope
hey..thanks for your answer..so my insurance company is actually gonna turn and be the bad guy and try and low ball me here?? what does UMBI stand for?? (like i said, i am new to all this!!) i have $15k for bodily injury for each person and $30k for bodily injury, each accident....my uninsured motorist coverage is the same with a 15/30k limit...will all this take into affect the week of work that i missed?? i got a letter from my employer stating the days i missed along with a copy of the doctors note, also in this letter is my rate and the amount of pay i missed out on that week...i have been avoiding trying to get an attorney involved because i do not want to just be giving money away but like i said, i do not know where to go next..once i get all my bills together do i send my insurance company a demand letter?? i have read this term on a few other sites...thanks again for your help and time you took to reply...
Posted: Tue Sep 06, 2011 03:52 am Post Subject:
hey..thanks for your answer..so my insurance company is actually gonna turn and be the bad guy and try and low ball me here??
Yes... exactly.what does UMBI stand for??
uninsured motorist bodily injury
I am not sure if NV has PIP or Med Pay. Regardless, I think you have a policy limits demand in the making. That is, with the amount of your medical bills and (or perhaps without) the amount you should be paid in pain and suffering, your claim is worth well in excess of your policy limits. So your carrier should simply offer you the $15k limits. If you got an attorney you'd still get the $15k but then need to pay the attorney 33% of that amount.
What an attorney would do for you, you can do for yourself. You can either sign a Medical Authorization form so your carrier can obtain your medical notes and bills or you can get them yourself and submit them to your carrier. You either want to submit enough bills to show that you should be paid $15k or wait until you have enough bills to total close to that. That is, if you were to send in $5000 in medical bills you carrier would probably not offer $15k but if you sent in $10k-$12k they would just offer up the $15k.
Do not tell any medical provider about your carrier. That is, don't let them send a lien to your insurance company if you can help it. Once your carrier offers you the $15k, _then_ go back to the medical providers and ask them to reduce the bills and you will agree to pay that reduced amount. This is done all day, every day. You are looking to get them to cut the bills in half. You may need to settle on them cutting the bills by 30%. You certainly want to try to walk away with something. So if cutting the bills by 50% still leaves you with nothing, negotiate to have them reduced even further.
That CAT scan and x-rays are going to be around $5000 right there.
After this is all said and done you need to see about increasing your BI and UMBI limits to something higher. My guess is it would cost you a few bucks to double those limits. This is for future situations. $15k is not much at all.
Posted: Tue Sep 06, 2011 12:25 pm Post Subject:
One thing tcope omitted has to do specifically with your medical expenses. I'm going to assume you gave the hospital information about your medical insurance, which they will happily bill for the ER expenses. But this is not an expense your medical insurance actually covers.
Medical insurance is intended to pay first party claims -- things you do to yourself. Your injuries are the result of a third party's involvement, and are actually that party's responsibility. But, since that irresponsible party has no insurance (and, we can safely assume, no money), your UNINSURED MOTORIST (UMBI) coverage stands in his place.
Any payments for medical expenses paid by your own medical insurance (including the $1000+ ambulance ride) need to be reimbursed to that company by your UMBI carrier. Assuming that alone does not consume the entire $15,000, any amount remaining will be used to cover your lost wages and "pain & suffering" -- so you won't have oodles of money coming for that.
Just remember . . . if your auto insurance company writes you a check for $15,000, you'll probably owe a large part of it to your medical insurance company.
And, as tcope also said, only a few dollars more per year would have improved the UMBI coverage dramatically.
As for needing a new car . . . well, since your UMPD will be paying you the difference between the vehicle's ACTUAL CASH VALUE and what you owed to the bank, you will have been INDEMNIFIED under the terms of your contract.
Yes, you have no vehicle, but you now have some cash in-hand and owe no other debt on a vehicle you don't have. So you buy whatever you want with the cash you have and finance the balance. It's the same position you would be in had you traded-in the vehicle instead.
Posted: Tue Sep 06, 2011 01:36 pm Post Subject: Thanks
Thank you guys so much for your input and information...i really never thought i would have too use my uninsured motorist coverage since it is a law in Nevada to have auto insurance..i was floored when i was at the hospital and the police officer said that probably a third of people driving around do not have insurance!!! What a joke, you try and do things the right way and end up getting screwed in the end...also, one more thing, so if 15k is my limit per person on my policy, what does the 30k per accident mean??? thank you both again so much for this info...sounds like the next few weeks are not going to be fun!!!
Posted: Tue Sep 06, 2011 03:59 pm Post Subject:
$30k is for everyone in your vehicle. $15k perperson with an overall max of $30k.
Increasing your limits is really for your liability to others for injuries (BI). Usually your UMBI limits are the same. You have seen what your medical bills are... what if you hit someone. Find out what it would cost to increase your limits. It might not be that much.
Posted: Wed Sep 07, 2011 04:19 pm Post Subject:
i really never thought i would have too use my uninsured motorist coverage since it is a law in Nevada to have auto insurance.
If you purchased your coverage through an agent, the agent should have advised you of the need to carry higher limits (usually consistent with your own liability limits).
This is one of the hazards of D-I-Y insurance over the Internet. Purchasing on price rather than on need.
Add your comment