Does he just carry Liability Insurance or is it Full Coverage? I don't know about there, but here, Liability only pays for damage to the other vehicle,proterty,etc.! You have to have Full Coverage to make a claim on your own vehicle. Alabama law says you HAVE to carry Liability Insurance.

did you tell the to doctors it was a car accident?

I would report it because by some state laws require you to file if it over a certain amount, also to protect you against the person that was hit. That is so important. Yes people seem to sue even though they are not hurt bad.
We were involved in a similar accident and got sued and lost even though it was not our fault.

Alex must know if he exchanged info. If he did, then you can assume that they'll file a claim. A rear ender is a slam dunk cash cow. No damage doesn't mean no jerk at impact. Your insurance company will not be happy if the other party files a claim and you haven't reported it. In California, we have to report injury accidents and/or over $xxx damage to the DMV. Alex's rates may or may not skyrocket. Again, don't know what state you're in.
Look up your Dept of Insurance and see what your state's laws are.

It depends on your insurance carrier... we have Nationwide Insurance & they have "first accident forgiveness"... whether or not his premiums will increase. Do you actually have *medical* coverage with your auto insurance? Not everyone carries it. If not then your other health insurance is the one that should be billed by the dr &/or hospital ER. Either way, I would definitely turn it in. You don't know if Lauren will have lingering problems with her injury, if there might be surgery, or complications, etc. etc. That could end up costing you wayyy more than an increase in premium. You have insurance for this very reason... use it, imo.

I have no idea what exactly is on the insurance policy as Alex's father is the one who bought it. He uses the same company I do, though. I guess I will have to call in the morning.

Kat, yes, I told them she was in an accident.

I'm pretty sure the insurance company will find out about the accident regardless of whether or not you file a claim. When the policy is up for renewal they usually pull a report from the DMV to see if there's been tickets/accidents, etc. It might not go up as much if you don't have a claim, but it probably still will go up some. That's been my experience anyway (well, my son's actually).

If it involves another vehicle or needs to be fixed damage on yours...you need to call..actually Alex should have called. My son at 17 lost control of the truck on slippery incline and slide back into a vehicle..I made him call the number on the card. They then called the house looking for my husband (primary) and asked if it was okay to speak with him because he was under age.
Our insurance didn't go up because of that one small incident.

and quite frankly the medical is covered under your insurance like any other medical claim. The insurance company (vehicle) if you even opted IN on the medical would pick up whatever yours doesn't pay..if you are at fault. But does pay for others injured.
However I'm not sure if Lauren would be considered in this since she was a passenger in his vehicle..but the other people would be covered. IF you have liability, but not medical.

I may not always have full coverage on a paid for vehicle, but I always have liability and uninsured motorist. I wave vehicle replacement and medical.

Right now though since I have an 18 yr old all vehicles are fully covered even though 2 of the 3 are paid for. But do opt out of medical, because we have sufficient insurance already.

if I was in the other vehicle i would atleast tell my insurance co. a few yrs ago i was hit from behind while at a red light, had just a dink on my big SUV. the other person who was yapping on his cell, didn't stop behind me quick enough & hit me in his work van. he did not want to even exchange info, i called the police and they came & got his info filled out report etc.... of course i ended up w/ a sore neck & back 2 days later and then had A/C/blower problems after being hit. wished i had said something to insurance co but it was after the fact so i didn't. more than likely they will let their insurance co know about it.

that said i would think since it's his fault & injuries were incurred in your car, you probably should tell your insurance co. if he got a ticket he needs to make sure it's paid asap before end of the semester, even off campus tix. non-private colleges can put students on probation who have unpaid tickets, owe the state $$ from taxes or even bounced checks. we know someone who wasn't allowed to graduate on time because he had an off-campus accident ticket unpaid. ~ liz

Sorry, but I am not clear on why the doctor would not take your health insurance. Do they not accept your health insurance, or are they refusing to put it under the health insurance because it was caused by a car accident? I have never heard of such a thing. I was in a bad accident and was hospitalized. My health insurance covered it, and then then I used the amount from the car insurance to cover the co-pay and other out of pockets.

Even if information wasn't exchanged the other drive might have taken down a license plate number and reported it.

It will be an at fault accident, if he has liablity only then the only thing that will pay out is liability, medical payments and probably property damage. Even if it was a slight hit I've seen the license plate holders come in at $500.00. If there is full coverage and damage to Alex's car would be covered under collision as long as the damage is more than his deductible. Yes, report it and make sure it is reported, you don't want this to go without notice to the insurance company, most states allow up to 2 years to recover from injuries sustained in an accident. Yes, it could affect his rates. If he paid more for accident forgiveness or has the required longevity in the policy he may be foregiven and not surcharged for an at fault accident. He will however lose his preferred driving discount if there is one.
As for Lauren, was she a passenger in Alex's car? Medical payments will cover that. Hospitals like to get the auto insurance policy information and bill the insurance company first. Even if they accepted health insurance information the health insurance company will go after the auto insurance company to get any money they can.

In some states, such as MN, auto insurance is all no fault. If you are injured in an accident then the auto insurance that you carry covers the medical bills, even if you also have medical insurance. In other states, auto insurance works differently. But, I was thinking that might be why your ER wouldn't take your medical insurance.

Most likely the dr/ER knows that your hospitalization is not going to pay them for the services rendered because it is something that your automotive policy should pay. And you really do need to make claim for your own protection, If anyone involved has a problem at a later time they have every right to come back on you.

The ER did take Lauren's health insurance information but our clinic did not. I'm not sure why. I never did have time to call the insurance company today. I will tomorrow though.

The police didn't give him a ticket that night. His father called the insurance company and told them about the accident.

One thing I discovered is you should call your *agent*, and *not* the company. If you have a good agent you might be able to save some money if there's no action on it. If you call the 800 number it's onto your record with the company where it isn't, necessarily, when through the agent, however you're still in the clear with the company since you notified the agent. A friend found this out the hard way. Called the 800 number with a question and they logged him as an accident. The agent told him to go though their office from now on. That's what they get paid to do anyway.

To clarify, Minnesota has modified system of "no fault" yes, but no, it's not all "no fault" in the State. The "no fault" applies only to medical payments and eliminates the insured from being involved in working out the payments by the insurance companies. Fault is still assigned and for being on the road you generally get assigned about 25% blame no matter what happened, then the insurance companies negotiate with each other on reimbursement. For property damage, "no fault" does not apply in Minnesota.

I'm surprised that medical liability isn't required nationwide. Here you are required to have liability, uninsured and underinsured, though I have a big problem with the underinsured issue.

Insurance companies can be rather arbitrary on rates. They might raise it, they might not. They might raise it down the road, they might not. What am I saying... insurance keeps going up! We're still paying off losses from Katrina fer cryin out loud, which is a topic for another thread!

Some watch DMV reports, some watch credit reports, and some do other things. When I had Farmer's Insurance, they pulled credit reports on me every six months! THAT bugged me and was part of the reason I left them.

just a side note on hurricane losses... it is state law in FL that all hurricane losses are contained w/in this state only and spread out to FL policy holders. which is why insurance is soooo very high here, i'm sure ours' is among the highest in the nation. in 2004 we had several hurricanes in orlando, my homeowners insurance used to be $350 and since then has doubled every yr until i hit $1500 and has stayed for 2 yrs now. they would not pay damages in 2004 & i've had no claims. ~ liz

Okay, there's only ONE thing you should do right now. And that's call your lawyer and let him/her handle all the issues for you. You don't need to be worrying about all this, nor dealing with the insurance companies, and you definitely should NOT be speaking to the other party. Let your lawyer handle all the negociations from the start, rather than waiting until things are in a jumble and need to be sorted out.

We've been through an auto accident with injuries and property damage--calling our lawyer immediately was the best thing we did. Seriously, you don't want to handle any of this on your own. Hope everyone feels better soon, and things work out. Do remind them all, that sometimes injuries from auto accidents don't show up immediately, so if they have ANY aches or pains in the weeks following the accident, they need to be thoroughly checked out. DD's X-rays the night she was rear-ended were fine, but she subsequently developed a permanent back injury as a result of the accident. Our lawyer saw to it that her medical bills--past and anticipated future--were paid, as well as $$$ for the pain she'll be feeling for the nest 60 years or so.

One of the first questions always asked when there's an injury is was it the result of an accident. It's not the hospital's fault--most insurance companies DO NOT pay for injuries that are the result of an accident where there may be other insurance (auto liability, homeowners, etc) that may be 'billable'. The hospital can't take the regular health insurance, knowing they won't be paid.

Here, the no-fault (Personal Injury Protection or PIP) medical would cover injuries in Alex's vehicle.

I wish you all the best.

KY Farm Bureau is paying for Lauren's medical bills. All is well.