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Your Bodily Injury Claim Settlement: Being
Prepared for Liens...
Once you've received your bodily injury claim settlement you're not
necessarily entitled to keep all of the money.
If you paid all the
medical bills out of pocket, the entire amount of your settlement
compensation (paid for medical expenses
of course) is yours to keep.
If
your medical bills were covered by your own personal auto policy or
medical health coverage, you may have to repay them with what's called
a "Lien."
This
is a provision that can be written into your own insurance coverage.
The same is true for HMOs and Medicare. Basically, they have a right to
get their money back if you get a third party bodily injury claim
settlement.
This only makes sense. Part of your insurance
settlement is paying for the exact
amount of your medical bills. Since
you didn’t pay them, you can’t really expect to be compensated for that
amount.
If you're in a car accident and your auto coverage pays for
your medical bills, they'll probably have you sign off on a future
lien. They want to make sure that if you file a third party claim
they'll be reimbursed.
So when you finally receive the money
from your injury claim settlement, put
aside the amount spent on
your medical bills. If you haven’t been told you'll have to pay a
personal injury settlement lien, then feel free to put the money in a
savings account to start
making some interest.
But don’t go spending
that money yet, because at
any time your auto coverage company might send you a notice. The same
is true for other organizations that may have paid your medical bills.
Of course, there are limits as to how long they can wait before
contacting you. To be safe, keep the money available for at
least six months.
If you still haven’t heard anything from them after
six months, then look into your state insurance laws.
There will be guidelines on
how long the insurance company can wait before taking a lien on your
bodily injury claim settlement.
You may want to avoid calling the
company that paid your bills and asking them about the lien. Why remind
them that they still need to request it?
Return
from Bodily Injury Claim Settlement to Compensatory
Damages
Return
from Bodily Injury Claim Settlement to Personal
Injury Settlement Guide
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