BATON ROUGE — Starting Jan. 1, 2026, a new law will change how medical bills from car crashes are handled in court.

Injured victims will only be allowed to sue for what was paid for, and not the full amount billed.

The CEO of Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of Louisiana said this new bill allows injured persons to be made whole.

“The health provider billed you $100,000, and you only end up paying $30,000 because of a negotiated rate. So, you can recover that rate," Albright said. "You get your money back for what you’re paid. You just can’t get anything on top of that for special medical damages.”

Personal injury attorneys, like Chet Boudreaux with Gordon McKernan Injury Attorneys, say this bill does more harm than good for their clients.

"Some of these injuries that we see exceed a million dollars in medical bills. So when someone is seriously injured, or they need some of their maximum health insurance coverage later, some of that is going to get depleted because of the fault of someone else," Boudreaux said.

Albright said the new law is a step in the right direction, but there’s more work that needs to be done.

“If we want to pay lower auto rates – rates similar to other states – we need to address the legal system abuse issues and get the profit out of medical costs in lawsuits,” Albright said. 

Boudreaux says this bill leaves no promises that insurance rates will be lowered.

“It basically passes off the cost to our clients and injured parties and takes rights away from them,” he said.

The new law applies to all car crashes after the effective date. It was part of an insurance reform package backed by the governor.