subrogation

Published on: September 6, 2022

11th Circuit Applies Four Year Statute Of Limitations To Repayment Claims By Medicare Advantage Plan In Personal Injury Cases

Crash. In an instant, another car runs a red light and crashes into your vehicle. All you remember is the sound of crunching metal and shattering glass. When everything stops moving, you are dazed. Then, you start hurting. Paramedics arrive and carry you to a local hospital for treatment. At least, you know your medical bills will be covered! You have a Medicare Advantage plan.

What happens if you later make a claim against the at-fault driver? What happens when you resolve that claim with the other driver’s insurance company?

I’ve written numerous times about the rights of Medicare, Medicaid and private health insurance companies to be repaid from your settlement. It’s a tricky area. It’s an area where a skilled lawyer can make a real difference, a big difference, in how much money you actually keep. In Alabama, we have several television and billboard lawyers who run settlement mills. This is where those billboard lawyers often just completely drop the ball. They don’t help their clients keep as much money as possible. What good is a settlement, if you don’t keep any of it? That’s wrong. Injured people deserve better.

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Published on: October 11, 2021

Should I Let A Lawyer Send Me To “His” Chiropractor Or Doctor?

By Jeff Blackwell

Do you have a referral arrangement with a specific chiropractor or doctor? It’s a question some callers ask. The answer is, NO. If you suffered a serious car accident injury, the worst thing you can do is hire a lawyer who has a secret referral relationship with a specific chiropractor or doctor. In a recent video, Virginia lawyer Ben Glass says these secret relationships are “the kiss of death for your case.”

We’ve all heard the television commercials! We’ve all seen the billboards! Please call, the lawyer begs. These are settlement mill lawyers. They are operating an assembly line process. Sign the client. Refer the client to a special chiropractor. Inflate the medical charges. Make a settlement demand on the insurance company. Take what you can get. (Take what “little” you can get.). That assembly line process fails clients who are truly injured. It benefits only the lawyer and his chosen clinic. That’s wrong.

The settlement mill lawyers all over television and billboards do not want you to know the truth. They are running a sham that hurts already injured people a second time.

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Published on: August 31, 2020

How Settlement Mill Lawyers Harm Car Accident Victims: Bad Deals On Medical Reimbursement / Subrogation

By Jeff Blackwell

In a prior post, I discussed the secret arrangements where settlement mill lawyers funnel most of their clients to a favorite chiropractor who then runs-up the medical bills for settlement. The downside of this secret arrangement is that the injured person never receives proper care but is left paying the bulk of their settlement money to the lawyer and chiropractor. It’s a bad deal for the personal injury victim. It’s a shameful practice by settlement mill lawyers who neglect their clients.

What about injury victims who have health insurance or health coverage? Here’s a quick scenario. You suffered an injury in a car accident. After the wreck, you go to the local hospital and then follow-up with your doctors. You probably pay some co-pays. But, your health coverage pays many of the bills. If you have health coverage, you should use it to get the treatment you need. You then hire a lawyer to make a claim against the at-fault driver. Medical bills and personal injury claims can be a confusing topic. But, it’s a very important topic if you are facing a serious injury. If you would like more information about medical bills and personal injury cases, click the link below to my article discussing the topic.

The insurance company knows which lawyers go to court. Choose wisely. If you are seriously injured in a car accident, the choice of lawyer can make a huge difference in the insurance company’s offers to you. If you hire a settlement mill lawyer who is not willing to go to court, the insurance company is likely to pay less for your case. Why would the insurance company pay a fair settlement if the adjuster knows your lawyer will not go to court? Why would the insurance company pay a fair settlement if the adjuster knows your lawyer is simply advertising on billboards for volume cases that can be quickly settled? Why would the insurance company pay a fair settlement if the adjuster knows your lawyer is simply using a staff of non-lawyers to push claims through the system. But, getting a smaller settlement from the insurance company is not the only way you can lose with a settlement mill lawyer.

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Published on: June 8, 2020

Wait! What Did The Lawyer Ask You To Sign?

By Jeff Blackwell

Through the years, we have handled many Alabama personal injury claims where the client initially hired another lawyer. Many of the lawyers smiling from billboards and television will NOT work on their cases. Many of these advertising lawyers will NOT go to trial. So, it’s not unusual for people to hire a billboard lawyer and later need another attorney. Many of the dedicated trial lawyers I know will tell you the same thing — They frequently review cases mishandled by billboard lawyers.

We recently reviewed a workers’ compensation case in Athens where the injured person started with one of these advertising lawyers. She hired the lawyers. When they realized her case might require some actual courtroom work, they let her go. I guess I should more accurately say they tried to talk her into settling for peanuts then let her go when she refused. We reviewed her file. When we looked at her contingent fee contract with these billboard lawyers, we saw that it contained a $500 administrative fee. What? That’s outrageous.

Why were these billboard lawyers charging an administrative fee? The contract did not say. The truth — It was simply another way to gouge their client without giving good service. Do you really think the firm was going to incur $500 of telephone and postage costs in a local work comp case? Maybe they were trying to recoup the costs of their billboards? Regardless, they were already charging the customary contingency fee for handling these cases.

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Published on: May 18, 2020

Do Work Comp Insurance Carriers CHEAT Workers On Subrogation?

By Jeff Blackwell

What Personal Injury Cases Are At Issue?

If you are hurt on the job in Alabama, you are likely entitled to work comp benefits. What if you were hurt because someone else was also negligent? You still have a work comp case. If the negligent person was a co-worker, that’s probably all you have. With a few limited exceptions for things like intentional conduct, your employer (and co-workers) are immune from claims outside workers compensation.

Sometimes, the negligent person is a third-party. That is, the negligent person did not work for your employer. If you are hurt due to the negligence of another person (outside your employer), you may also have a separate personal injury claim to recover your damages. In these cases, you likely have BOTH a work comp claim and a negligence claim against the third-party.

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Published on: September 16, 2019

Four Ways The Lack Of Consistency And Transparency In Medical Charges Impacts Personal Injury Cases

By Jeff Blackwell

Injured and facing mounting hospital bills? If you find yourself in this situation, the medical bills and charges can be confusing and overwhelming. You probably have many questions. What are my actual medical charges? Sometimes, it’s difficult to tell. How much did my health insurance pay? Why is the hospital charging ten dollars for a single aspirin? None of it makes sense to most patients.

Our medical system suffers from a lack of consistency and lack of transparency in charges. I recently read a great article on LinkedIn that asks the question — Can Price Transparency Actually Lower Health Care Costs? The article discusses several issues, including surprise charges, price gouging and health insurer discounts. The author concludes it’s a “money game” of different prices for different people. This is certainly true for personal injury victims who often suffer the worst impacts of unfair and inconsistent medical costs.

Hospitals attempt to take advantage of personal injury victims for maximum profit. From the moment a personal injury victim enters a hospital, the unjust process begins. Why is the hospital admissions clerk so interested in whether the other driver is at-fault or has car insurance? Hospital greed, that’s why. The same is true for some clinics, chiropractors and physical therapy offices.

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Published on: March 12, 2018

Are Hospitals Treating Accident Victims Differently?

By Jeff Blackwell

Do Alabama hospitals treat accident victims differently? The short answer is, YES. If you are an accident victim, you can pay the price for the hospital’s actions. An article published earlier this year in another state tells the story. That story is titled “Man says hospital went after car crash settlement instead of insurance.” That story leads with the following:

You can’t tell the difference in the emergency room. It happens when the hospital is ready to collect its money.

Many of us have some type of health coverage. Blue Cross. Medicare. Tricare. United Health. You assume the hospital will first submit the bill to your health coverage provider. After all, you paid for the coverage. The hospital may even have a contract with your health provider requiring it to submit the bill. Yet, hospitals often treat accident victims differently.

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Published on: June 5, 2017

Four Tips For Personal Injury Cases With Workers’ Compensation Liens

By Jeff Blackwell

You were hurt on the job. You received workers’ compensation benefits. But, a third-party (someone outside your work) caused the accident. You want to pursue a personal injury claim against that third-party. Can you file a workers’ compensation claim AND a personal injury claim? Yes, you can. But, you need an attorney who understands how these two claims work together. You also need to understand the workers’ compensation insurance company has certain rights (a lien) to be repaid from your settlement. A good attorney can help maximize your settlement recovery from these two claims.

The workers’ compensation carrier has a lien against your personal injury case. Under Alabama law, your employer (and its insurance carrier) have certain rights to get their money back if you win your personal injury case. At our firm, we routinely represent clients in both workers’ compensation and other personal injury cases. We understand how these areas of the law interact.

What happens when your employer or its insurance carrier file a lien against the third-party negligence case? The issues can be complicated. How you (or your lawyer) handle these issues can tremendously impact your bottom line. I could discuss these issues in significant detail. But, here are four quick tips to consider when handling this type of case:

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Published on: July 18, 2016

Wrongful Death And Medical Reimbursement In Alabama

By Jeff Blackwell

I’ve written on several occasions about Alabama’s unique wrongful death law. Wrongful death claims in Alabama are very different. Chief among the issues that make Alabama wrongful death law different — only punitive damages are recoverable. You cannot recover compensatory damages for actual losses like medical costs.

Many lawyers advertise for wrongful death claims. Yet, they fail to understand fully the impact of Alabama’s unique law. And, this lack of understanding can have a tremendously negative impact on the overall recovery for clients.

An attorney’s entire preparation and trial strategy should be designed for the unique damages recoverable in Alabama. Yet, many attorneys prepare these cases as all other cases. That’s a mistake. It is short-sighted and costly for clients.

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Published on: August 17, 2015

Alabama Wrongful Death Case? Does Medicare Have Reimbursement Rights?

By Jeff Blackwell

Subrogation. Reimbursement. What do these concepts mean for personal injury cases? When you suffer a personal injury, your health insurer (or plan) pays your medical bills. For many people in Alabama, this means Blue Cross. It may also mean government programs like Medicare, Medicaid or Tricare. These health plans pay your bills. But, they usually have rights to recover their payments from your personal injury settlement. Their rights vary between private and government plans. I’ve addressed that issue in other articles.

The legal issues can be complex. And, understanding the rules (which differ between private and government plans) can make a huge difference in how much money you actually keep. This is an area where a skilled lawyer can really help you save money and maximize your final recovery.

What about wrongful death cases? Do health plans and programs have rights to reimbursement from wrongful death settlements? Does Medicare have reimbursement rights in Alabama wrongful death cases? I mention Medicare specifically because it covers so many people and also carries the weight of the government. While these insurers and plans do have reimbursement rights in personal injury claims, they don’t have the same rights in wrongful death claims.

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