“Good Morning” Q&A Segment with Irene H Gabo & Natasha Bystritskaya

Irene H Gabo joined Natasha Bystritskaya for the first Q&A segment about personal injury and medical malpractice on the popular “Good Morning” show on Davidzon Radio 620AM.

Listen to the Broadcast:

Q&A Transcript

What is the most important things to do in a hit and run accident?

Get the license plate of the vehicle that hit you. If the vehicle drove away before you got the information, go the police precinct right away, and report the accident within 24 hours. If you are taken by ambulance to the hospital, ask the medical personnel at the hospital to call the nearby police precinct, so police officers can come to the hospital and take your statement.

24 hour reporting to the police is crucial in a hit and run accident

Is it important where I treat, or do I just go anywhere close to me?

You want to make sure that you get comprehensive treatment by experienced and caring medical professionals. A lot of patients find it easiest to treat at a facility with specialists, such as orthopedist, neurologist and physical therapists on staff.

To me, it is also important what is the facility’s record with insurance companies. Are there complaints against the treating doctors, previous lawsuits, fraud investigations, etc? If there is negative history associated with the facility, the insurance companies would likely have a record, and its important to go to reputable facility to not only get the best treatment, but to forego insurance company’s investigation into your treatment, amount of visits, medical supplies received, etc.

I have a deposition coming up in my case, how do I prepare for it?

Best answer I can give, is thoroughly.

Your deposition is one of the most important parts of the case. Defense counsel want to know what kind of impression the client makes, does he or she appear honest and sincere? They are looking to see how you will appear to the jury if the case comes to trial. After the depositions, defense counsel then advises his insurance adjuster on the case about how it went, and the settlement or trial will be affected by your testimony.

Therefore, I don’t believe in 5-10 preparation over the phone. My clients will come in and spend at least an hour with me before the deposition date to thoroughly prepare, so there are few surprises. We’ll go over photos, accident description and injuries and treatment. The day of the deposition, before we start, I’ll also spend time re-iterating what we previously discussed so the important things to look out for are clear in the client’s mind.

If I have medicare can I still have a case if I was hurt?

Medicare reporting is mandatory by plaintiff’s counsel plaintiff’s attorney, if client is on medicare, cannot ignore reporting to medicare, if client is a medicare recipient.

However, the good thing about medicare, is that 1) they can only get back what they paid out for the injuries sustained in the accident, not for unrelated medical treatment and 2) we work with medicare to negotiate their conditional liens down, once the case is settled, to lower it even further and 3) clients do not lose medicare once the case is settled and medicare lien is paid, if any. The benefits are not affected.

I received a letter from medicaid after I received a settlement check that I am being taken off medicaid and public assistance, what do I do?

The letter gives you time to appeal the decision, usually 60 days, but it would state the time on the letter. So most importantly, you must respond within the time allowed and disagree with the decision and ask for a hearing.

Medicaid and other public assistance programs allow recipients to pay for “necessities” out of the settlement money and still remain on the program. At the hearing you will need to produce proof of these necessity expenditures. For example money can be spent on burial funds, burial plots, household goods and personal effects and the home you live in, repairs, for example.