Most of us are familiar with the concept of a lien. We’ve seen mechanic’s liens on your car or tax liens on your house, but did you know that your medical treatment provider or health insurer can put a lien on your personal injury case and any settlement or judgment?
If you have Medicare or MassHealth, these medical liens happen automatically (by operation of law). And, with either Medicare or MassHealth it is incumbent upon the injured party to notify the state or federal government about the injury, case, bills, etc.
If you have a private health insurer (Tufts, BCBS, Cigna, etc.) or if a medical treatment provider (Hospital or doctor) wants to put a lien on your case, they have the obligation to “perfect” (provide proper legal notice of) that lien pursuant to G.L. c. 111 s. 70.
Liens are a way for a doctor or hospital to ensure payment of medical bills or a way to ensure reimbursement of a health insurer’s payment of medical bills in a “3rd party fault” case, when the 3rd party (the defendant) is responsible.
As your attorneys, our job is to make sure that the doctor or health insurer, public or private, gets only that which they are entitled-to and not a penny more. That means you get the most out of your settlement or judgment. Call Orlando & Associates, PC to learn more!
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attorney/client relationship is not created without agreement of both parties. Therefore, Orlando &
Associates, P.C. is not responsible for any decisions you make in furthering any legal matter in which you
may be involved. Each individual person’s case or legal issue is unique and you should not rely
completely upon the basic information contained within this blog post to pursue your own legal matter.
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