Medical Bills after a Minnesota Work Injury

What should you do after receiving a workers’ compensation medical bill following your injury? Let us help.

Getting a medical bill after your injury can be frustrating and even upsetting. There may even be a situation where the clinic or provider bills your personal health insurance instead of your Minnesota workers’ compensation insurer. You may incur out-of-pocket expenses including copays, prescriptions, deductibles, etc. It is important to understand, what you can do once you have received a bill for a work-related injury. It may be helpful to speak with a Minnesota workers’ compensation lawyer to discuss your options.

Here are some helpful pointers:

Ensure that the bill is for services that were rendered and related to your work injury.

Review the bill accordingly, as it is possible that you could be billed for something that may not even be related to your work injury. If the services you were billed for were not rendered, you should dispute them. You can request an itemized statement from the clinic/provider and they should be able to provide that to you.

Ensure that the bill has been submitted to the workers’ compensation insurance company.

It is amazing how often the medical providers forget the correct information to submit it appropriately to the workers’ compensation insurance company. You want to make sure they have received the correct information. If you do not know the work comp insurance information, you can contact your employer or the Department of Labor and I Industry to obtain that information. Once the work comp insurer has the bill, they are required to either pay the bill, deny the bill, or request additional information within 30 days of receipt of the bill. The work comp insurer may request an independent medical evaluation if they decide to further evaluate whether the treatment is reasonable, necessary and casually related to the work injury. You should note that if the work comp insurer had authorized the treatment, they cannot later then deny payment of that bill/charge.

If the work comp insurer denies, your private health insurance should pay it.

There may be a situation where the work comp insurer is denying payment of the bill. At that time, I would strongly encourage that you speak with a Minnesota workers’ compensation lawyer to discuss your options about pursuing and filing a claim. In the meantime, if that does arise, you are allowed under the law to submit your bills to your private health insurance. Under the law, the private health insurer is to pay for the medical treatment. The health insurer is allowed under the law to intervene in your workers’ compensation matter and recover reimbursement for the medical charges. This way, you can continue treating without sacrificing any gains due to the denial or obstruction of workers’ compensation.

 You should speak with a Minnesota workers’ compensation lawyer.

Because Minnesota workers’ compensation lawyers offer free consultations, it would be important to make sure that you are actually doing what you should be doing under the law. While you can review articles and the internet, facts to each case may be different and there may be subtle nuances to each situation. It does not hurt to speak with a lawyer to go over your options and determine what can be done to help make your situation go more smoothly.

The insurance company knows your rights, do you? Talk to a Minnesota workers’ compensation lawyer today by calling (855) 354-2667. It is a free consultation and there is no obligation to retain a lawyer. You can discuss your case with a lawyer and obtain the advice you need to get your life back on track.

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