Tell The Hospital Who Your Insurance Company Are And Telephone The Claims Office

Category: Finance, Insurance.

This series of articles considers a selection of the clauses in a typical UK vehicle insurance policy.

Current UK laws dictate that you must pay fees to the first medical practitioner to give you treatment in a road traffic accident. At this time it s the" Emergency Treatment" clause and it deals with who pays for any medical attention needed following a motoring incident. This is incorporated in the Road Traffic Act. In truth this is not the case but in real life terms it is usually the ambulance medical staff that offer the treatment and the account is sent to to you from the National Health Service hospital that sent the ambulance and its crew. Some people call this a charge for an ambulance. You are liable for this payment irrespective of who is blamed for causing the accident. Just send the account on to them and they will pay it straight to the N H S trust.

Your insurer will meet the cost under this section. Alternatively you can pay it yourself and ask your insurer to repay you. It s possible that you could receive a reminder from the N H S trust that the invoice is still outstanding. It is not impossible that in a busy insurance office, the insurance staff might overlook the invoice if it was sent in with other paperwork. Tell the hospital who your insurance company are and telephone the claims office. The insurance company paying this account in itself does not affect your no claims bonus.

Be forceful but please don t be angry. It is not regarded as a claim. In reality, in an accident where someone is hurt, it is highly improbable that there will be no other claims to be met. So, in the very unlikely event your insurance company were to pay this and nothing else your bonus would remain intact. Theoretically, if someone else is at fault for the accident you can send this account on to their insurer but you are just inviting unnecessary hassle. It doesn t make any difference to you either way. I would advise you not to bother.

Owing to recent changes in the law, hospitals now also charge the insurance companies for treatment given to third party victims of accidents, with certain limits applied. This change in the law has definitely contributed to the increase in motor insurance premiums. These are paid to the NHS Trust in cases where you have been negligent and another person has needed treatment for an injury you caused. Some insurance professionals consider that this is a further case of increasing taxation by stealth by the Government.