Basic evidence and trial practice has taught us that to get medical bills into evidence, you will need to prove: the plaintiff has paid or become liable to pay the medical bills; the plaintiff necessarily incurred the medical expenses because of injuries resulting from the defendant’s negligence or defective product; and the charges were reasonable for services of that nature. If a jury finds that the defendant is liable to the plaintiff, one measure of damages is the “reasonable expenses of necessary medical care, treatment and services rendered.” Pennsylvania case law allows a plaintiff to recover the reasonable value of medical services, as in Piwoz v. Iannacone, 406 Pa. 588, 178 A.2d 707 (1962), and in Fougeray v. Pflieger, 314 Pa. 65, 170 A. 257 (1934).
The first element can be established by the plaintiff. Under Pennsylvania law, a plaintiff is entitled to recover for past medical expenses reasonably and necessarily incurred, as well as all future medical expenses reasonably likely to be incurred, as in Moorhead v. Crozer Chester Medical Center, 765 A.2d 786, 789 (Pa. 2001), abrogated on other grounds by Northbrook Life Insurance Co. v. Commonwealth, 949 A.2d 333 (Pa. 2008) and McDonald v. United States, 555 F. Supp. 935, 962 (M.D. Pa. 1983). As to past medical expenses, “the law requires a plaintiff to produce evidence which establishes, with a fair degree of probability, a basis for assessing damages,” as in Phillips v. Gerhart, 801 A.2d 568, 577 (Pa. Super. 2002). “The law does not require exact certainty as to the precise amount of damages incurred.”
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