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UK Motor Insurance - Who Pays For Emergency Treatment?

By: Trevor Dace

This series of articles looks through a selection of the clauses in a typical UK motor insurance policy. At this time it's the "Emergency Treatment" policy clause and it deals with who is responsible for any medical treatment needed as the result of a motoring incident.

Under current UK legislation, you must pay fees to the first medical person to give you treatment in an accident. This is part of the Road Traffic Act. Some people call this a charge for an ambulance. In truth this is not correct but in real life terms it is usually the ambulance men who provide the care and the bill is sent to to you from the National Health Service region that supplied the ambulance and its crew.

You are liable for this payment irrespective of who was to blame for the accident. Your insurance company will always pay the bill under this section. Just send the paperwork into them and they will remit it straight to the N H S trust. Or pay it out of your own pocket and get your insurance company to repay you.

Sometimes in a hectic insurance office, the insurance staff could miss the account if you have sent it in amongst other paperwork. Indeed you could receive a reminder from the N H S trust that the account is still outstanding. Tell them who your insurers are and telephone the claims office. Be firm but please don't be angry.

Payment of this account will not in fact affect your no claims bonus. It is not treated as a claim. So, in the unlikely event that your insurers were to pay this and nothing else then your bonus remains unharmed. But in a road traffic accident where a person is injured, it is highly improbable that there will be no other claims to be dealt with.

Theoretically, if someone else is to blame for the accident you can send this account on to their insurer but you are just inviting unnecessary complications. My advice is, don't bother. It doesn't make any difference to you whichever way.

Following recent alterations to the law, hospitals now also charge the insurance companies for treatment given to third party accident victims, with certain limitations applied. These are claimed by the NHS Trust in cases where they have judged you to have been negligent and another person has needed treatment for an injury that you caused. THIS HAS PUSHED UP THE COST OF CLAIMS SETTLEMENTS AND CONSEQUENTLY YOUR PREMIUMS. Some insurance professionals consider this to be a further case of "stealth tax" taxation by the Government.

Article Source: Main Articles

This article on treatment costs following a road traffic accident was written by Terry Cod. He has many years of experience working as a claims adjuster with a number of UK motor insurance companies. His website www.instant-online-insurance.co.uk offers online Direct Line car insurance with online quotes and secure online payment.

This article may be reproduced wholly or in part without written permission provided the byline, resource area, and any hyperlinks remain in order to give proper credit to the author.

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