Archive for the ‘Subrogation’ Category

The Ohio Bar Association’s new Subrogation Committee held its first meeting today to try to formulate what the purpose of this committee is. The committee developed a working statement which states as follows: “Parties injured by a wrongdoer often are not receiving full or fair compensation in part because of subrogation laws of Ohio.” The Committee does contain one subrogation attorney Dennis Rehor of Cincinnati Insurance company. The Committee will attempt to reconvene to discuss this statement of principle on April 14th, 2010 at 10:30 A.M. The Ohio Bar Association hopes to have some proposals considered again at its meeting during its yearly convention in Dayton in early May. Ohio subrogation attorneys who are members of the OSBA need to make sure they check the OSBA’s website regularly as they hope to post information regarding the work of this Committee.

President-Elect Kenneth Levine and Amicus Committee Chair Daran Kiefer spent Monday February 22nd in Colorado with several NASP members and industry lobbyists testifying in opposition to House bill 1168. During the eight hours at the Capital, the parties supporting this bill agreed to several amendments. First, the bill was amended to eliminate property, workers’ compensation and auto subrogation from its reach. As for health subrogation, the proposed amendments require the injured party to provide information about the settlement and available limits. The amended bill calls for a rebuttable presumption of “full compensation” when insurance limits are not received. The amended bill also provides that a party’s full compensation value is equal to any jury award. The health subrogation industry will be impacted if this bill passes and becomes law in Colorado. The House Judiciary Committee approved the measure 10-0 with one abstention.

The South Dakota bill would prohibit a subrogated insurer from participating in any recovery for “bodily injury” or “property damage” unless or until the injured party is “made whole”. S.D. Senate bill 169 failed to pass the Senate on February 22, 2010. However, the Senate reconsidered the bill on February 23rd, 2010 which resulted in a tie. The tie was broken by the Senate President and Lt. Governor. The bill now heads to the House for consideration.

The New Hampshire House Judiciary Committee reviewed and recommended a bill recently pertaining to contract, Medicaid or statutory subrogation rights of subrogation for “”reimbursement of medical expenses” against plaintiff’s recovery. The proposed bill requires these subrogated entities to pay costs and attorney fees to the injured party “as justice requires”. The bill does not give any direction on how the court should divide the proceeds other than “as justice requires”. However, the bill does provide a cap and states the insurance carrier, medical provider, or the state shall not be awarded more than two thirds (2/3) of the amount claimed. The bill would apply to health, auto medical payments and worker’s compensation lines of coverage. The effective date of the bill if passed would be January 1st, 2011.

Makes Subrogation Professionals look like bad guys! Hilarious!

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Bulletin 371

By Chris Aguiar of The Phia Group, LLC

Can anyone disagree with the notion of affordable healthcare? No matter where you sit on the political spectrum, I would imagine it would be difficult to vote against such an idea. Over the past few months, we have witnessed contentious debate on the most effective means to provide affordable healthcare for all. One of the main points of contention on that debate, as is always the case when dealing with political matters, is cost. Read more

By Mark Hillman

If there’s one thing personal injury lawyers are especially good at, it’s exploiting the misfortunes of their clients while devising new ways to line their own pockets.

Colorado House Bill 1168 is this year’s prime example. While claiming to help injured parties receive full compensation for damages caused by the fault of someone else, what it really does is guarantee that the injured person, in order to be fully compensated, must hire a lawyer. Read more

In the waning days of 2007, with the cost of health care continually escalating and with more and more of the costs being borne by the United States Government, Congress passed and President Bush signed into law the Medicare, Medicaid and SCHIP Extension Act of 2007 (MMSEA). With the stroke of his pen, the President created a responsibility for self insured organizations, liability insurers, group health plans and non-group health plans that pay bodily injury claims to insure that the Medicare system is protected from bearing the costs of current and future medical expenses if those expenses are the primary responsibility of an entity other than Medicare. Entities making such payments are known as RREs. Read more

Subrogation rights are again in danger in Colorado with the introduction of H.B. 10-1168. This bill essentially undoes healthcare subrogation while codifying the “made whole” and “common fund” doctrines into law. The proposed bill will certainly have a devastating effect on healthcare, workers compensation and UM insurance subrogation, but other auto and property subrogation rights will also be greatly impacted whenever there is a personal injury suffered in the same loss. The most dramatic aspect of the proposed bill is that carriers cannot bring direct subrogation actions in such instances. Read more

Thursday morning, by a vote of 60 to 39, the Senate approved an amended version of H.R. 3590, the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.” Read more

PITTSBURGH, Nov 24, 2009 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ —–The ONLY Place for Subrogation Litigation Education!-

The National Association of Subrogation Professionals (NASP), the world’s largest insurance subrogation association and leader in subrogation education, is pleased to announce its fifth Annual Subrogation Litigation: Skills and Management Conference, taking place in Tucson, Arizona at The Hilton El Conquistador Resort on April 15 and 16, 2010. This unique educational event is designed to enhance the litigation skills of subrogation attorneys, in-house counsel, insurance professionals and consulting experts involved in the litigation process. Read more

Boris Senic is the Senior Claims Auditor and Never Events Specialist at the Phia Group. In his 7th year of employment, he has decided to share his views on the industry’s hardships and tries to offer some words of advice on how to approach these tough economic times. Read more

Plan’s subrogation and reimbursement language may actually thwart their ability to recover from tort settlement proceeds benefits they paid. It is important for plan language to ensure that its recovery claim is limited to settlement proceeds. In one such case, a health plan did not identify a particular fund from which the reimbursement should be paid and it failed to say that the recovery was limited to third-party settlement proceeds. Because of the imprecise drafting, the court could assume the plan was trying to recover from the plan participant’s general assets. That created the possibility that a member could receive a recovery from a third party that was less than the benefit paid by the plan but would still have to repay the plan in full. As a result, the court found it impossible to award the recovery. Read more

Please see the following 6th Circuit Decision brought to our attention by Daran P. Keifer, Esq. of Kreiner & Peters Co. L.P.A.  The decision highlights that funds do not need to be maintained in order for a plan to seek reimbursement and that the Plaintiff attorney is personally liable for the percentage of reimbursement equal to his attorney fees.

6th Circuit Decision