Car accidents and trucking wrecks lead to personal injury claims. If you need medical treatment following an accident, there’s a good chance you have a personal injury claim. If you have health insurance, you should use that to pay for your treatment, because it can take a long time to get all the treatment you need. The other party’s liability insurance isn’t going to pay as you go along, and your medical providers may turn you over to collections if you don’t use your health insurance.

If you have a government-based health insurance plan like Medicare or Medicaid, those plans will have a lien on your personal injury claim, and will be entitled to be paid something back out of that recovery.  If you have a private plan, for example, through your or your spouse’s job, that plan MAY have a right of recovery, but it typically is not a lien.

Many private employer health insurance plans have a right to be paid back after they cover your medical expenses in a personal injury claim. That right is a contractual right of reimbursement through your employer’s plan for employee benefits. If such a right exists, it’s usually governed by the Federal ERISA statute. There are specific qualifications for an employer to have such rights of reimbursement, and your attorney should make sure those qualifications are met. A right of reimbursement is NOT the same thing as a lien.  Many health insurance plans will tell you they have a lien when they actually don’t (although those plans may have legal rights that can be enforced like a lien.)

The award-winning personal injury lawyers at the Miller Law Group have over 50 years of experience in dealing with liens, subrogation, and claims for contractual reimbursement. Our lawyers know how to identify whether a lien applies to your case, or if it’s a right of reimbursement, or whether such rights exists at all. Contact the Miller Law Group today through our website or by calling 919-348-4361. If there is a lien or reimbursement issue, we handle those as part of your claim for no extra charge.

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