If, as a result of your personal injuries, you have received medical care paid by your employee health plan, the health plan will probably be entitled to reimbursement for those expenses from any settlement you receive. This is called subrogation or third-party reimbursement. In addition, a lien may be placed on your settlement by the insurer. Whether your employee health plan has a right of subrogation is based upon the language contained in the plan or policy. Look through the document, if it contains sections entitled subrogation or third party liability, then you will be reimbursing the plan at the time of settlement. It is important to learn this early on in the case so that when the case is being settled, the lien can be factored into the settlement.
If you do not have a copy of the plan, the attorney will obtain it. When dealing with such a lien, our attorneys will work with the insurer to negoitate a compromise so that only a percentage of the lien is paid and the rest goes into the client’s pocket.