One of the hardest concepts for my personal injury clients to understand (and frankly myself as well) is that when I settle their case they have to pay back the health insurer out of their settlement the money the health insurer paid for their medical treatment. For instance I was negotiating a Fort Myers/Cape Coral personal injury case with the insurance company adjuster when he asked me how my client was going to pay the rather larger health insurance lien. I just laughed and told him it was my problem not his. I also told him when I first started doing personal injury twenty-five years ago the health insurer never expected to be paid back from money from a personal injury settlement. After all isn’t that what you pay premiums for? He couldn’t believe it and said of course they should be paid back the money they paid for the medical treatment otherwise our health insurance premiums would go sky high. I told him, as a small business owner for the past 10 years paying health insurance for my employees, my health insurer never lowered its premium during all those years and in fact increased it routinely 10-20% every year regardless of a good or bad economy and even though during those years they insisted on being paid back from all personal injury settlements.He did not have a comeback for that and since his company was paying for his own health insurance I am sure he could care less; I wonder how he would see things differently if he had to pay for his health insurance out of his own pocket and then have an accident and have that health insurer say we want a portion (and often times a large portion) of your settlement. Call Smith P.I. Law Firm if you are in an accident so we can make sure you receive the compensation and respect you deserve.
