If you’ve been injured in a car accident, the medical bills may already be huge. Unfortunately, one of the things that many victims forget about is the possibility of future medical costs. When you’re putting together your demand letter to the responsible party and their insurance company, it’s a good idea to work with a Casper, Wyoming car accident lawyer with experience in helping to estimate future medical costs.
From a Casper, Wyoming Car Accident Lawyer: How a Car Accident Can Impact Future Medical Costs
In most personal injury claims, victims are advised to wait until they reach the point of maximum medical improvement before they try to bring a claim. This is because it becomes difficult to estimate into the future about what medical costs may be. The term “maximum medical improvement” would ideally mean that the victim is completely healed from all of their injuries.
Unfortunately, a car accident always has the potential to injure a person so badly that they never fully heal. In that case, the point of maximum medical improvement is just the point at which a person is unlikely to heal any further. And in some extreme cases, it may not be possible to wait to bring a claim until that point because medical costs are so high and so likely to be ongoing for most of the rest of the person’s life. Here are just some of the costs that a victim may need to think about:
Ongoing Medication or Pain Relief
Even if everything else has been finished, from hospital visits to surgeries or rehabilitation, there’s the possibility of continuing to need medication for some time into the future. Many times, a victim needs painkillers and muscle relaxants for a while. And since it’s not a good idea to remain on powerful painkillers for a long time, other forms of pain relief, such as acupuncture, massage, and other sorts of therapies may be necessary.
All of these costs need to be included in any settlement, and a victim should talk with a lawyer and doctor to get a good idea of what they’re going to need for the future and how much it might cost.
Rehabilitation and Physical Therapy
In the case of severe injuries, rehabilitation can go on for years. Whether you’re dealing with severe burns, the loss of a limb, the loss of the use of a limb, or trying to recover after a major surgery, the cost of rehab and physical therapy can really add up.
Mental Health Treatment
Accidents are traumatic events. Events like this always have the potential to create PTSD, depression, and ongoing anxiety. Every individual is different here, and there’s no telling how a particular person may respond to the trauma of an accident; but for some people, mental health treatment may need to go on for quite some time until they can get back to a place of peace and healing and go on with their lives.
Dealing with a mental health problem could involve getting regular therapy or counseling and can also involve medications. In some cases, sleep is badly affected by the trauma of a car accident, and a victim may need medication or treatment to help with that.
Surgeries and Recovery
In some cases, a victim will require multiple surgeries over the course of years to fully fix the damage incurred after a car accident. While this is, thankfully, rare, it does happen. Each surgery is another major event that must be paid for, and then there’s the recovery time and expense needed to get the victim back on their feet after each one.
If multiple surgeries are needed, there might also be multiple periods where the victim has to take time off of work in order to deal with each surgery, and this also should be included in any settlement demand after a car accident.
Home Modifications
For those who are injured so badly that they lose a limb or are otherwise permanently disabled in some way, there can be huge medical costs for modifying the home so they can continue to live in it. This could be anything from installing railings to knocking down walls to make room for a wheelchair, redoing a bathroom completely, and much more.
Long-Term Care
In the very worst of situations, a victim can be so badly injured that they will never be able to live alone again. They may need to have carers come into their home for the rest of their life, or they may even have to go to a care home of some kind. This is, of course, ruinously expensive, and if someone else’s negligence has caused a victim to suffer like this, then any final personal injury settlement must take into consideration all of these future losses.
How to Calculate Long-Term Medical Needs in a Personal Injury Claim
Talk to a Lawyer
The first step is to talk with an experienced personal injury lawyer as soon as possible. A personal injury lawyer with experience in car accident claims knows how to think through all the elements that should be included in a final settlement, including medical needs. A lawyer will also have specific experience in the types of injuries that are often caused by these car accidents and will have a network of expert witnesses to call on in helping to estimate future medical costs and also prove to insurance companies or in court that these costs are necessary.
A lawyer is helpful in other ways, too. For one thing, a lawyer knows how to negotiate for a victim and stand between them and an insurance company that may be trying to minimize costs by casting doubt on the need for treatment. A lawyer can also, of course, take a claim into the courtroom if an insurance company refuses to pay a reasonable settlement that covers all of the victim’s future medical needs.
Work With Life-Planners and Medical Expert Witnesses
As stated above, a good lawyer will have a number of people to turn to who can help you properly estimate your medical costs. A life care planner is particularly skilled at estimating future medical costs associated with managing long-term injuries and treating pain. Medical experts can help by estimating exactly what treatments will be needed and what the likely prognosis is for the long-term future.
These experts do more than just help with making the calculations. They can also testify in court if necessary to justify the number that a victim and their lawyer have come to. The purpose of an expert witness is to help lay people understand difficult concepts by putting them into clearer terms and translating some of the medical and financial jargon into everyday speech. Insurance companies will also use these sorts of witnesses to help them come to a number, so in some cases, a victim’s lawyer will be using expert witnesses to counter numbers from the insurance company.
If you’ve been injured in a car accident, don’t let the fear of ongoing medical costs overwhelm you. Contact the Ochs Law Firm in the Casper, Wyoming and throughout the state for a free consultation on your case.
