If you live near a major hospital, and you hear helicopter blades chopping the air, chances are it’s an air ambulance heading for the roof of the hospital.
Every year, hundreds of thousands of people use air ambulance services, and they save lives.
Nevertheless, they are expensive. Costs average between $27,000 and $41,000 per ride, and they are rising rapidly. Unfortunately, many insurance policies do not include life-flight insurance.
Seeking the advice of an experienced California personal injury lawyer could help clarify your rights and responsibilities following an accident.
Please give Wells Call Injury Lawyers a call at (707) 289-8442 or send us a message today for a free consultation.
Insurance Companies and the Bottom Line
Insurance companies are businesses that operate for one purpose and one purpose only, to turn as large a profit as they can.
Their income is derived from accepting insurance premiums, and their expenses come from paying out claims. For this reason, expect resistance.
Life Flight Insurance: Am I Covered?
The term “life flight insurance” refers to insurance policies that cover air ambulance services. The issue is not nearly as straightforward as it may seem at first, however.
Insurance policies often use vague language in their policies to leave them some “wiggle room.”
Not very many policies specifically cover air ambulance services. You can expect insurance companies to resist paying, especially if you have not retained a law firm that they respect.
In some cases, the insurer may deny your claim with no justification or with only a bare-bones excuse for denial.
Insurance companies do this when they don’t expect you to put up much of a fight. If you are representing yourself, this kind of stonewalling is all but certain.
In other cases, insurers may use creative approaches to interpret policy language. Was a “life flight” actually a “necessary medical treatment expense”?
You can be assured that the insurance company will argue that it wasn’t, or that the cost was unreasonable.
Dirty Tricks That Insurance Companies Like to Play
Insurance companies bring a bag of tricks into the claim resolution process. While there are too many to list them all, the following are some of the most common:
- Convincing you that you don’t need a lawyer;
- Accumulating small delays, hoping to lull you into missing the statute of limitations deadline for filing a lawsuit;
- Monitoring your social media accounts, looking for an excuse to claim that you are exaggerating your injuries;
- Bringing you a settlement agreement to sign while you are still in distress and have no idea how much your claim is worth; or
- Trying to blame the accident on you so they can avoid responsibility for paying.
You can rest assured, however, that we are not going to fall for any of these tricks (or any other trick).
The Good Faith Requirement
California’s law requires insurance companies to negotiate with claimants in good faith. You can sue them and win damages for bad-faith denial of your claim, above and beyond the value of the claim itself.
The good faith negotiation requirement is a powerful weapon in our legal arsenal, and we know how to wield it to maximum effect.
Contact a California Personal Injury Lawyer Today to Fight Back
Here at Wells Call Injury Lawyers, personal injury law is what we do. Period. We do not practice any other form of law.
And we have successfully represented personal injury victims against greedy insurance companies in thousands of cases.
Call us at (707) 289-8442, or contact us online for a free consultation. Our offices are located in Napa, Fairfield, Vallejo, Vacaville, Woodland, and Richmond.