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If you suffered serious injuries in a car accident, your insurance or lawsuit payout should cover your past, current, and future medical expenses related to the crash. But how do you accurately predict future car accident medical expenses, especially if your injuries will affect you long-term?
Insurance companies employ several methods to calculate future medical expenses. Your car accident attorney will help ensure that your payout adequately covers ongoing costs.
What Future Expenses Should a Payout Account For?
When you think of the car accident related medical costs an insurance claim will cover, you may initially picture your emergency room stay, hospital bills, and upfront costs related to the immediate treatment you received. But your insurance payout should also cover any ongoing accident injury treatment costs to fully make up for the damages you incurred in the accident.
Examples of future car accident medical expenses your payout needs to cover include:
- Post-accident rehabilitation costs
- Surgery expenses
- Diagnostic tests
- Prescription medications
- Home modifications to accommodate disabilities
- Medical specialist consultations
- Home care services
- Mental health treatment
It should also account for ongoing lost wages related to your injury or disability. If the car accident prevents you from working long-term, your insurance claim should help make up for your time off work and lost earning capacity.
Methods of Calculating Future Medical Expenses
Some car accident attorneys will advise you to reach maximum medical improvement (MMI) before finalizing an insurance claim or pursuing legal action against the driver. This would enable you to better understand your medical expenses resulting from the crash.
However, reaching MMI is not always feasible if your recovery is expected to take years or if doctors are unsure of exactly what level of improvement you will be able to reach over time. Instead, the insurance company can use one of these methods to estimate your future car accident medical expenses.
The Total Lifestyle Approach
This method assumes that you will never reach your pre-accident level of functioning, even after achieving maximum medical improvement. It attempts to factor in your ongoing limitations and lifestyle adjustments to reach a fair accident payout.
With this method, your insurance adjuster and/or attorney will consult with your healthcare provider to create a life care plan that predicts ongoing needs and expenses related to your injuries. They will then calculate the costs necessary to maximize your lifestyle throughout your life expectancy.
The Additional Expense Method
Alternatively, the insurance adjuster can try to itemize your ongoing medical costs to ensure that the payout adequately accounts for future crash injury healthcare expenses. They will work with your medical provider to predict the types of treatments, therapies, medications, and home modifications you will need to return to your former lifestyle.
How To Prove Future Car Accident Medical Expenses
If you want your claim to properly account for future car accident medical expenses, you will need to prove your ongoing medical need. Your attorney will gather the following evidence to support your future accident-related medical charges:
- Testimony from your medical providers
- Medical documentation showing the severity of your injuries
- References to similar cases involving your types of injuries and detailing the length of recovery
- Pain journals and other logs from you detailing your symptoms and disability
Seek Assistance From Our Accident Attorneys
At Bryan Garrett PLLC, we have helped countless car accident victims maximize their compensation through insurance claims and lawsuits. We will guide you through the compensation process and seek an adequate payout to account for future car accident medical expenses.
Contact our car accident attorneys today at 405-591-3508 to request a consultation.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ):
Q: What future medical expenses should a car accident payout cover?
A: Payouts should account for rehabilitation, surgery, tests, medications, home modifications, specialist consultations, home care, and mental health treatment.
Q: How are future medical expenses calculated in car accident claims?
A: Methods include the Total Lifestyle Approach, which factors in ongoing limitations, and the Additional Expense Method, which itemizes ongoing medical costs.
Q: How can I prove future medical expenses in my car accident claim?
A: Prove future medical expenses with testimony from medical providers, medical documentation, references to similar cases, and pain journals.
