If you’ve ever been involved in a personal injury accident, your first action was (probably) to hire a good lawyer. If you talked to this person enough, he or she probably told you about medical liens. This is important since the majority of the costs in a personal injury accident stem from medical bills.
Yes, your insurance company can sue you for medical bills that it has previously reimbursed you for. Your lawyer will tell you that your insurance company can indeed sue you for medical bills that it has reimbursed you for in the form of a medical lien.
How do medical liens work?
Personal injury lawyers in London know that your insurance company can place a medical lien on your final settlement by putting a legal demand for money on it. The courts can order you to subrogate or compensate your insurance company for all of the money it has given you to treat your personal injuries.
Hospital lien: If you are ever treated in a hospital, rest assured that the treatment was not free even if you didn’t pay a penny for initial treatment. The hospital can put a hospital lien on your final settlement which requires you to subrogate it for any services rendered to you. Some hospitals even have you sign a hospital lien which requires you to put a lien on your settlement when you receive it.
Government liens: Government liens can be placed on your settlement. These arise when you have unpaid Medicare or Medicaid bills. If the government has paid for any of your medical treatment for your personal injuries before you received your settlement, rest assured that it can and will place a lien on your final settlement requiring you to subrogate it.
How do you negotiate and release a lien?
It’s possible to negotiate a lien and have it released from your final settlement. However, as your personal injury lawyer will tell you, this is a complex process. That’s why it rarely occurs. You’ll have to ask your lawyer to help you reduce the amount of a lien that’s been placed on your settlement. That would help you save some money.
Medical liens and lawyer’s fees
Just remember that you have to pay your lawyer(generally 33% of your final settlement amount) before you can begin to subrogate your other medical liens. The settlement process is not always cut and dry. As you can see, medical liens can complicate the settlement process. That’s why you need to hire a good lawyer to help you navigate through this maze. That is why it helps to hire a lawyer that has found success in similar cases.