{"id":44,"date":"2018-02-23T04:56:01","date_gmt":"2018-02-23T04:56:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maeslaw.com\/blog\/?p=44"},"modified":"2024-07-10T13:24:49","modified_gmt":"2024-07-10T13:24:49","slug":"medical-bills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maeslaw.com\/blog\/medical-bills\/","title":{"rendered":"Medical Bills"},"content":{"rendered":"

Health care is often in the spotlight, which is no surprise given that it makes up 17.8 percent of the United States’ GDP<\/a>.  Irregardless of the politics, most consumers are able to protect themselves through an insurance policy.<\/p>\n

Policies are set up to offer in-network providers who have already negotiated discounts with the insurance carrier; themselves gaining access to a large pool of insured.  This allows for cost savings both to the carrier, as well as the consumer.<\/p>\n

The problem we see most often arises when a plaintiff is injured in an auto accident, slip & fall, or other catastrophic event.  Through no fault of their own, the injured person has to be taken by an ambulance they didn’t choose, to a hospital of necessity.  This ends up being one of the most expensive trips the plaintiff never gets to choose.<\/p>\n

In my experience, the average ambulance bill runs between $1,100 to $2,500.  While a single transaction emergency room visit can range between $3,000 to $25,000.  Although these numbers feel unbelievable, they are hardly outliers, when you consider a bag of IV fluid is often billed at $100, or a simple X-Ray can run as high as $350.<\/p>\n

These prices are amongst the leading reason our clients seek out an attorney.  The fact is, most of our cases are open-and-shut when it comes to who was at fault.  For instance, there is a presumption of liability for rear-end collisions in Colorado, in which the standard jury instruction reads:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen a driver of a motor vehicle hits another vehicle in the rear, the law presumes, and you must find, that the driver was negligent.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Finding fault is only half the battle.  There are four elements to a claim for negligence:<\/p>\n