How to Calculate Future Medical Expenses
Insurers generally don’t automatically pay future medical expenses unless the claimant has included them in their injury claim.
Missouri personal injury law allows a car accident victim to seek compensation for all their tangible economic losses due to the car crash. This will include your medical bills and loss of wages as you recover from your injuries. It also recognizes that future medical care may be needed and will allow you to be compensated for that.
When an insurance company jumps to offer a settlement, it may be because they believe the injuries you have sustained due to their client’s negligence are worthy of compensation for future medical care.
Compensation For Future Medical Bills
Your age, health, and life expectancy will all be considered when determining the presumed cost of your future medical care. The severity of your disability will also be a factor, along with the possible need for around-the-clock medical care. Pain management, including therapies and medications, must be considered before fixing an amount to your future medical needs.
The need for ongoing care after a car accident is prevalent. Catastrophic crashes can lead to significant trauma to a person’s body, including loss of cognitive functions from brain injuries. Spinal injuries and paralysis can also result, necessitating medical treatment for an undetermined amount of time. Some examples of the future necessary medical costs would include:
- Rehabilitative, physical, and occupational therapy costs
- Future surgeries
- Diagnostic tests
- Prescription medication
- Counseling
- Hospital costs
- Nursing and caregiving services
- Clinic with specialized medical experts
- Massage care
- Home modifications such as unique showers, wheelchair ramps, or widened hallways
- Medical equipment such as crutches, hearing aids, or wheelchair
Since there is no unequivocal evidence of the amount future medical expenses will be, we would often rely on expert medical testimony to help determine what your future medical needs will most likely be and what they will cost.
Expert Witnesses
Expert witnesses can testify and confirm your future medical costs claim has merit. In addition, your attorney can engage an economic expert to help determine the correct monetary value for your future medical care.
Maximum Medical Improvement
You may want to wait until you have reached your maximum medical improvement before settling your claim. At that point will probably have exhausted all the treatments, and your condition will be unlikely to improve. More importantly, your attorney and doctor will have enough time to understand your injuries’ severity and extent fully. This will enable them to determine the value of your future medical costs claim accurately.
Why it is important to call The Hoffmann Law Firm, L.L.C.
While monetary compensation for future medical care won’t heal a debilitating injury, it will ensure that you can live a more comfortable life and continue to be treated for it.
The help of an attorney can prove invaluable in ensuring that your injuries are being considered on their own merit, not on what an insurance company believes should be the cost based on other similar cases.
Please talk with a representative from our legal team today about your needs for future medical care and what you need to do to get compensated for them.