The California Supreme Court recently dealt a major blow to personal injury plaintiffs in its recent decision in the Howell v. Hamilton Meats & Provisions, Inc. The court sided with big business and insurance companies in deciding that personal injury plaintiffs could only recover for the medical expenses actually paid to medical providers, rather than the amount billed by the medical provider.

This will have a major impact on personal injury plainitffs in California and will further limit recovery for victims. Before this decision, personal injury plaintiffs could recover for the amounts billed by their medical providers. In Colorado, plaintiffs can still recover for the amount billed (rather than the amount paid). After the decision, California personal injury plaintiffs can only recover for the amounts paid to their medical providers. For consumers, this means that they can only recover the drastically reduced amount that their insurer paid to the medical provider. In a way, it punished those people who carry health insurance. For someone who has health insurance, they can only recover the amount their insurance company paid the provider. For someone who does not have health insurance, they can still recover the amount that was actually billed.

Lets use a quick example to show how this will affect consumers. Plaintiff A has a job and has health insurance and is injured in a car accident. Plaintiff A goes to the hospital for his injuries. The hospital bills Plaintiff A $10,000 for his hospital visit. Later, Plaintiff A’s insurance company negotiates that $10,000 bill down to $2000. Now, Plaintiff A can only recover $2000 for his injuries even though the actual “value” of his injuries was $10,000. Meanwhile, Plaintiff B is unemployed and does not have health insurance. Plaintiff B gets injured in a car accident and goes to the hospital. Plaintiff B also gets billed $10,000 for his hospital visit. However, since Plaintiff B does not have health insurance to negotiatie his bill, he can still recover the full $10,000 “value” of his injuries.

Fortunately, Colorado has not adopted California’s way of thinking. However, insurance companies and big business are spending more and more time and money to take away individual’s legal rights. If you are in an accident, be sure to talk to an attorney at Kidneigh and Kaufman so you know your rights.

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Filed under: Injury Law Firm

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