Will my health insurance take all of my Florida personal injury settlement?
This is a very complicated question and it has developed a niche area of practice where law firms only deal with insurance companies. Generally, if your health insurance has paid money for hospital or medical expenses it will have a right of reimbursement. If you have a personal health insurance or small business plan, the insurance company will usually deal with you at the end of your case. The complication comes in if the Group Plan is a self-insured plan under a federal law called ERISA. Some examples of group plans covered under ERISA are large employers like (Publix, UPS, Southwest Airlines, Large Banks). In these situations the plan can receive all the money that it had paid out even if it is more than the amount of the settlement.
The United States Supreme Court has not helped injured folks with these issues. How the health insurance is going to react and respond to the injured person’s personal injury claim is something that needs to be looked at and discussed early on in your case. Sometimes, it is best just to walk away from the claim if the ERISA carrier is going to be jerky, otherwise all the injury victim and their attorney is is a collection agent for the health insurance company.
If you have any questions about how your health insurance will impact a Florida personal injury claim, you can call me directly on my cell at 352-267-9168. .