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Whether you are injured in an accident in which there is an at-fault third-party and are attempting to recover damages through the third-party’s liability insurance, or whether you’re making a first-party claim with your own health insurer, the presence of a pre-existing condition could complicate recovery somewhat. Injury Must Be Distinct or Aggravated In Florida, you may recover for injuries that are either distinct from a pre-existing injury, or that have simply aggravated a pre-existing […]

As a health care provider, you’re well aware of the daily struggle to get the payments you’re owed from the insurance company. It’s a miserable cycle: you provide the services for your patients, collect a minimal copayment and then get a notice saying it was denied. Now you’ve got bills to pay and you’re left with potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars in limbo because the insurance company delays payment or refuses to pay.

Health insurers are not consumer-oriented protectors in our dog-eat-dog healthcare system of today. In fact, in Florida and elsewhere, some of the greatest heartache and family suffering has been caused by wrongful decisions of health insurers. It is common these days to receive a denial of health insurance coverage based on illogical and irrational reasons. These decisions are so hurtful to consumers that some of them must seek bankruptcy relief while others suffer permanent credit record blemishes for outlandish medical bills that they cannot pay.

Leona Helmsley made headlines after she died by leaving her dog, Trouble, about $12 million. The money was held in trust for Trouble’s care and feeding and, some said, extravagant lifestyle. The move made sense to some of us: Trouble was part of Helmsley’s life.

The holidays can be stressful for those of us who have hard-to-shop-for relatives. Books, neckties, kitchen gadgets, socks, movie tickets, fruit baskets and gift cards — it has all been done before, sometimes many times before. We came across something the other day that could be perfect for a certain sub-category of the hard-to-shop-fors: pet insurance.

We are close to finishing up our discussion of the survey conducted by Insurance.com . The researchers wanted to gauge how many Americans fell for some long-held beliefs about insurance coverage. Men, it turns out, were more susceptible to misinformation than women. Overall, though, the results showed that we are all becoming savvier consumers of insurance.

No one plans to get sick or develop a medical condition, but the reality is that these things happen and, when they do, the costs associated with medical care and treatments are often astronomical. Health insurance exists to help defray costs associated with medical care. For example, if an individual gets sick and needs to go to the doctor, his or her health insurance typically covers a portion of the expenses related to a doctor’s visit or hospital medical tests.

It may look as if the federal government is a classic example of one hand not knowing what the other is doing, but 310,000 people now know or will soon know differently. It turns out that their Affordable Care Act applications or enrollment records do not agree with the records of the Citizenship and Immigration Services division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The ACA only covers people who are in the country legally.

As might be expected, there are a few growing pains associated with the Affordable Care Act. The website issues have been documented in the media, but a lesser-known problem involves unfamiliarity with new procedures applicable to both doctors and patients.

Living without health insurance is like living life on eggshells. There really is danger lurking around every corner, a slip in the grocery store, a car accident or even a trip on a toy that sends someone down the stairs. Each of these could result in some massive medical bills that can be as damaging as any bodily injury.