#1 Failing to call a 'No Fault' lawyer because you are afraid of the cost.

I have been helping accident victims for over 33 years. What you are about to learn, could literally save your life.

Also, as a business person, my goal is to make sure you are completely satisfied, because I want you to be my best advertising and referral source to your family, friends, neighbors, business associates, and virtually anyone else with whom you come in contact.

Once you learn about the “Ten Worst No-Fault Landmines,” you will understand why you need to call.  There is no charge for calling, so what could you possibly have to lose?

#2 Not Knowing Which Insurance is Responsible to Pay Auto Accident Medical Bills.

When a life-threatening crash occurs, you and your family are in shock and in survival mode. However, the healthcare world of hospitals and doctors require payment. Within hours of a crash, someone is going to ask you: "Do you have insurance?" Let's look at the possible answers:

1. Private health insurance
2. Medicare
3. Medicaid
4. No-fault automobile insurance
5. HMO plans
6. PPO plans
7. Workers' compensation
8. Short/long-term disability
9. Supplementary insurance

If you answer incorrectly, your bills may not get paid. Also, to correctly answer the question and avoid the landmine, you must know if your auto insurance coverage is "coordinated” with your health insurance.

Again, if you do not answer the questions correctly, the insurance company will deny payment; the healthcare providers will refuse to continue to treat; the insurance contract requirements may be violated and you may never know how to fix the problem until it's too late.

#3 Assuming Your Insurance Company Will Inform You of Your Rights and Benefits

Have you looked at your auto insurance policy lately?

If you're like most people, you get the policy and put it in a drawer hoping you never have to use it.

However, when a crash occurs, that policy defines the “No-Fault” world you are about to enter. Insurance companies train their claim adjusters to understand the legal importance of every word in the policy and also train them to understand how to manipulate Michigan's No-Fault Laws.

If you ask them to explain any of this or ask what benefits exist to help you, the law says they have no legal obligation to explain anything and you're expected to understand what's in the insurance contract.

It's ridiculous, I know, but the laws are written by politicians, and billions of dollars of insurance money help write these laws to help them and hurt you.

Unless you have a trained translator of that policy and the laws to guide you, you may never learn about lifesaving benefits. This includes money to pay bills, full-time help in the home to take care of a loved one; modifications to your home to accommodate wheelchairs; private transportation companies to assist with medical transportation, and so on.

Not knowing about the benefits or not demanding correct answers from the claim’s adjusters can let the insurance company completely off the hook and you may never get those benefits back.

#4 Assuming Your Insurance Company is Obligated to Pay Your Medical Bills

The No-Fault laws put the burden on you to make sure the insurance company has all the information they need to decide whether a medical bill should be paid or denied.

The problem is, the hospital or doctors don't tell you what they send to the insurance company. The only way you'll know something is wrong, is when you keep receiving the same bill over and over again. This could go on for months and eventually the bill gets sent to collections and there goes your credit rating. Unless you get fast and accurate advice, this is almost certain to happen.

It's your obligation to watch for these repeat bills; call your insurance company to have them explain why they haven't been paid and, if necessary, follow up with doctors' offices, hospital, billing departments and other frustrating administrators to obtain the missing information to ensure you don’t get stuck with tens of thousands of dollars of medical bills. We handle all of this for you.

#5 Assuming You Will Receive Disability Income to Pay Your Bills While You Are Unable to Work

The law requires the insurance company to pay you disability income if you can't work after an accident. In No-Fault law terms, this is called the "Work Loss Benefit". But, like medical bills, the law requires you to provide the insurance company with all the proof they demand to prove you're disabled; prove you were employed; prove the amount of income you would've earned had you not been hurt and make sure all of the forms the insurance company sends to your employer and doctors are filled out and returned to the insurance company.

That's the easy part!

The trouble starts when the insurance company gets tired of paying and hires one of their doctors to "evaluate" you (typically 15 minutes) and give an “opinion” about your disability. If that doctor says you should be able to work, the insurance company will stop paying your wage benefit and, unless you know how to respond, you can be financially dead in the water.

#6 The "Independent Medical Evaluation"

This is possibly the most dangerous landmine of them all.

This is the insurance doctor I just referenced. As we all know, most doctors are great/honorable people who are sincerely dedicated to help eliminate or relieve a patient's suffering. However, the "insurance doctors" who you are forced to see, immediately tell you they are not your doctor and they are not there to help you. They are there for one purpose - answer the insurance company's questions.

However, there is nothing "independent" about these doctors. They make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year performing 15-minute examinations for insurance companies. Needless to say, if they say what the insurance company wants to hear, you are “cut off.” And, it would be naïve to believe they don't know where their bread is buttered. As such, the same doctors shows up again and again because they are notorious for providing the insurance companies with whatever they need to terminate your benefits.

If you are ordered to see one of these doctors and you are not prepared, one wrong statement or one wrong move could put you into medical and financial disaster. If you have any question about that, just ask anyone who has ever gone through one of these evaluations.

#7 The "Case Manager"

When serious injuries occur, you are often treated by multiple specialists; multiple surgeons and multiple therapists at the same time. Your life becomes one big medical appointment. Obviously, all of the medical treatments are very expensive and can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

In these circumstances, the insurance company will hire a "Case Manager" to take control of your medical treatment.

Like doctors, many Case Managers are thoughtful-dedicated professionals who truly want to help. Typically, they are registered nurses who are well trained to understand the complicated medical landscape and help guide you through it successfully.

However, there are those, like "cut-off" insurance doctors, whose priority is money and being repeatedly hired by insurance companies. Those "Case Managers" work hand-in-hand with the insurance company, their doctors and often say damaging things behind your back.

The most obvious signal identifying that type of Case Manager is when they constantly appear at your doctor appointments and insist on interrupting your private time with your doctor. You will hear their tone and questions and know they are not working for you.

Unless you know your options, you are stuck with the ultimate spy for the insurance company.

#8 Failure to Cooperate

If the insurance company tells you to do something, such as appear before the "cut-off" doctor or do what your "Case Manager" tells you to do, no matter how illogical or immoral, if you don't comply, they may have the right to cut you off completely.

However, with training and guidance, you will understand your obligation is to act "reasonably" in all of these situations. After you understand what that means, you become armed to respond to the insurance company and protect yourself. You have the right, asserted properly, to say "no" to the insurance company without fear of being cut off.

#9 Believing You Ever Have to Pay a Medical Bill

The No-Fault law is designed to insure you never pay one penny of any medical expense.

However, if you identify the wrong insurance or you go "out of network" with a doctor, you may get stuck with thousands of dollars of medical bills.

Also, if you see medical bills partially paid and you receive a “balance” payment request, you typically think you have a "deductible" or "co-pay" and pay it. If the insurance companies are billed correctly, you should never pay any charges for your medical expenses, but you must respond correctly.

#10 You Have One Year

Devastating financial problems result from ignorance of the No-Fault law's "One-Year-Back" statute of limitations.

If you receive medical treatment and the bill is not paid within one year of the date you receive that medical service, you will be responsible to pay that bill. It does not matter if the bill is for $10.00 or $25,000, if it is not paid timely, it will become your responsibility.

One of the problems with the medical billing process is that within that one-year period, you may never know a bill is not paid. Medical billing information is exchanged between the healthcare provider and the insurance company and unless you receive a copy of the bill, it would be natural to assume everything has been paid and there are no problems.

Unfortunately, if the hospitals, doctors and therapists are not paid in that one year, they can sue for unpaid bills up to six years after they provide the service. So, if the bill is not paid in one year by the insurance company, the insurance company is off the hook and you remain responsible for another five years.

Even if the insurance company tells you they are in the process of investigating; they are probably going to pay the bill; payment is in process or whatever excuse they may provide, if that bill is not paid in one year, you are stuck. However, there is a simple way to protect yourself. Just call!