Personal injury victims often need a substantial amount of money immediately to pay for medical costs. Unfortunately, it very often takes time for an attorney to secure financial recovery for you. Health insurance companies or other sources may provide you with short-term funding to cover your immediate health care costs. In return for this money, the contributor may require you to sign an agreement creating a lien on your future financial recovery from your case. This medical or health insurance lien creates a responsibility for the injury victim to repay money they were lent for medical expenses once their attorney secures a recovery.
It’s important to know that while a medical lien holder may demand repayment of a medical lien from your entire settlement, they may not be entitled to it. There are rules in place to protect people from being victimized by entities that lend money for emergency medical expenses in return for reimbursement once the injury claim is settled. Since different rules apply for Medicare and ERISA liens than for regular health insurer liens, this article’s general discussion does not cover these kinds of liens.
Medical lien holders may only be entitled to part of your injury settlement. Settlements do not only compensate medical costs. These settlements may include payment for other injuries such as lost wages, pain and suffering, and punitive damages as well as medical costs. A medical lien holder may only receive payment for the portion of your settlement earmarked for medical expenses.
The amount of money payable to a medical lien holder may be further reduced based on certain circumstances. Your payment could be reduced based upon a finding of comparative negligence. Such a reduction would be applied to the proportion of money you would receive for medical expenses, which would in turn reduce the amount of money required to pay a health insurer lien. An attorney’s fees may also reduce health insurer liens. A medical lien may not exceed 1/3 of the entire personal injury payment if an attorney is involved. If a personal injury lawyer rhode island is not involved, a medical lien may recover up to 1/2 the entire personal injury payment.
I cannot overemphasize the importance of having an experienced personal injury attorney to structure your settlement to accommodate your health insurer liens and other damages. Before you sign anything from a health insurance company, speak to a personal injury lawyer rhode island to protect yourself.

