An important aspect of dealing with personal injury claims and maximizing customer financial recovery is the negotiation and resolution of medical liens. Many times, people who suffer personal injury due to the negligence of others are not covered. At other times, the injured person may have insurance, but the insurance has a large deductible or insufficient insurance. Either way, the injured person may face significant medical expenses and collections long before he or she receives any compensation for the injury.
This kind of torture may become overwhelming, especially without the help of a personal injury lawyer. In addition to dealing with the pain and suffering of the injury itself, claimants may also face problems with lost wages and increased medical costs. The reality is that health care providers want to get paid and are not sympathetic to the plight of the injured. In fact, suppliers typically hire a collection company to collect the bill within a few months of collecting the treatment [which of course may affect a person's credit]. In addition, some medical service providers, usually chiropractors, may even ask patients to sign a document claiming that the transfer to the provider has the right to receive funds from future recovery from personal injury.
In Missouri, the transfer of personal injury claims is invalid. According to recent cases from
Huey v. Gary Meek, dba Meek Chiropractic from
[Mo.App.S.D. 2013] The Court of Appeal declared that the "voluntary lien" of the chiropractor was invalid because it violated Missouri's public policy regarding the transfer of personal injury claims. Therefore, with the help of a personal injury lawyer without legal knowledge, the injured person can pay a bill that is not legally required to pay.
In addition, Missouri has a Medical Retention Lien Regulation, Section 430.225 of the Missouri State Revision. According to the regulation, if such a health care practitioner, hospital, clinic or other institution has a lien exceeding 50% of the patient payable, each medical practitioner, hospital, clinic or other institution engaged in the lien notice should share the income 50% of the net amount, all other liens of medical practitioners, hospitals, clinics or other institutions are calculated on a per-reward basis. The term "net income" as used in this section refers to the amount remaining after payment of contractual attorney fees [if any] and other recovery fees.
This means that the aggrieved party will never have to pay more than 50% of the net proceeds for the claim [and all providers have the right to allocate the total bill proportionally]. For example, suppose an injured party hires a personal injury attorney to get a 1/3 contingent fee, and he wants to settle his $150,000 [$15,000.00] claim, but the medical bill totals $10,000 [$10,000.00]. Based on this situation, it is assumed that there is no fee, and the medical service provider is only entitled to $5,000 [$5,000]. This situation leads to one-third of lawyers, one-third of providers, and one-third of injured customers. Therefore, without this regulation, the injured party usually gets zero recovery.
Orignal From: Addressing medical liens in cases of personal injury in Missouri
No comments:
Post a Comment