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• The Importance of Witnesses in an Ohio Personal Injury Case

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Medical Bills for Unsuccessful Treatment Considered Reasonable and Necessary in an Ohio Personal Injury Case?

When you are injured due to someone else's carelessness, one of the most obvious things you are entitled to recover from that person's insurance company is the costs for your medical bills. However, insurance companies are always coming up with creative arguments to justify low payouts to injured victims in personal injury cases, regardless if the injuries arose from a car accident, truck accident, pedestrian accident, or motorcycle accident.

As an injured victim, the burden is on you to prove that the person was careless in causing the accident, that the accident was a proximate cause of your injuries, and the damages you sustained from the accident. As part of your damages you are entitled to have your medical bills paid. However, the insurance company will sometimes try and get out of paying for all of your medical bills by making various arguments. One common argument is that the treatment did not improve your condition so they were not reasonable or necessary and therefore not compensable.

Ohio law, at least in part of Ohio, holds that the negligent party is required to pay the bills for medical services which may have even made the persons medical condition worse. InJoyce v. Randolph, 1988 Ohio App. WL 74198 (Ohio Ct. App., Greene County July 13, 1988); Harris v. Roadway Express, Inc., 1985 Ohio App. WL 9823 (Ohio Ct. App., Franklin County January 17, 1985), the court instructed the jury that this was the law, over the argument from the defendant that they should not have to pay for medical treatment which made the injured person worse when other treatment may have been beneficial.

The theory behind these decisions makes sense. People do not know before they see a doctor whether or not the treatment he prescribes will work or not. Everyone is also different, and what works for one person may not work for another person. The point is that the injured party still has to pay for those services, and they would not have initially sought those services if they had not been injured by the negligent party. Thererfore, it is the negligent party who should pay for these services, not the injured party.

Some defense lawyer arguments are without merit when brought into the harsh light of day. For example, some defense lawyers will say since you did not improve with chiropractic care, you should not have gotten the care. This is ridiculous. Chiropractic or physical therapy treatment may not have cured a person of their injury, but if it keeps them able to work and function in life, then it was reasonable. I guess the person should have stayed off work in agony and made the insurance company pay the much higher lost wages each day instead of trying to get well. Ridiculous. Another example is when they argue that an injured person could have just taken a pill to stop their pain so why get all the therapy prescribed by a doctor. This assumes the person should take the cheapest treatment option available, even if it simply masks the pain and fixes nothing. I guess if someone hurts you, you should be concerned about saving some money by taking drugs that just mask your pain. I was not aware injured Ohioans were in the business of saving auto insurance companies money by denying themselves needed rehabilitative medical care. Ohio law requires a person who injures you to pay for medical care that puts you back to where you were before the accident. If that takes a day, fine. If it takes years of therapy, too bad for the person who hurt you, and too bad for the insurance company that agreed to indemnify and pay the bills caused by their insured's negligence.

I have actually had several non-doctor insurance adjusters have the nerve to actually say that they don't want to pay for a life flight ordered by an ER doctor because the adjuster did not think it was necessary. How arrogant and ridiculous can you get? Of course those arguments will never be heard in front of a jury because they would be laughed out of court. But you will hear them and we hear them and those like them on a regular basis. I guess my favorite ridiculous argument for not paying for medical care was the adjuster who said they don't want to pay for the one month nursing home care required after an accident because it was a nice place and my client got good care. How twisted and sick is that argument? We hear adjusters say the client would not have needed so much treatment had they not been so old, overweight, etc. This disgusting argument hides the fact that you take your injured person where you find them, and it does not matter that a reasonable person would not have been hurt, it only matters if this person was hurt.

Arguing that a person with back pain after an injury probably already had it because they are overweight is a common one. Since the majority of Americans are overweight, under this argument, auto insurance companies should not have to pay for back injuries for most of the population caused by their insureds. How nice for them. I think why you need an experienced personal injury lawyer on your side to combat these ridiculous arguments is obvious. An experienced personal injury lawyer can protect you and explain why these arguments are offensive, ridiculous and without merit in most cases.

Call the experienced personal injury attorneys at Chester Law Group today to get the help you want from people you can trust (800) 218-4243.

Contact us today for a FREE, NO OBLIGATION consultation about your personal injury legal needs.

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