In
almost all injury cases, when the plaintiff gets injured they seek healthcare almost
immediately. Most times the person’s health insurance company pays the bills
generated by an accident in the first instance. Sometimes, this is a private
company like Blue Cross Blue Shield, and other times it is government provided
insurance like Medicare or Medicaid. In each scenario, both types of insurance will
have a “lien” or right of reimbursement from the settlement an injured party
can get from a third party insurance policy.
Most
commonly, it is a private health insurer like BCBS that pays the bills. As part
of all health insurance contracts, the health insurer reserves a “subrogation”
right through the contract. This allows the health insurer to get paid back
through a settlement or judgment any medical bills that they paid that are
being accounted for in the settlement. The theory is that a person should not
be able to be paid twice for the medical service, which would lead to a sort of
“double recovery”. This is built into the health insurance contract and is only
triggered by the collection of actual settlement or judgment dollars. If you
review your own health insurance contract, you will find this provision likely
under the title “subrogation”.
In
other situations, the health insurer is a governmental agency like Medicare,
Medicaid or Tricare (military insurance). These insurers have a statutory right
of reimbursement. This means that, like the private insurers above, they have a
right to be reimbursed from any settlement or judgment the insured receives for
bills they have paid. Since these are statutory rights of reimbursement, it
becomes imperative to understand these liens and coordinate the benefits in
order to avoid having the plaintiff be sued in the future. This is because
these liens are “automatic” and many people do not understand that such liens
exist. It is very important to identify all types of liens in each case, and
coordinate paying them back prior to reaching a settlement.
Negotiating
these liens can often yield to lower reimbursement amounts, which can only
benefit our clients. Having an experienced personal injury litigation attorney
becomes very important for any potential plaintiff. If you were injured and
need help getting back to normal, contact
the experienced personal injury attorneys at Parnell and McKay and put our 40 years of combined experience
to use.
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