I'm dealing with an insurance settlement right now from a wreck my wife was in back in April. I've learned that subrogation can work in your favor. What your lawyer should've done is have the insurance companies work with each other (actually you can do this without a lawyer). This by passes you and protects your "pain and suffering settlement". You must give the auto insurance access to any records/bills. They can pay unpaid medical bills directly and your health insurance could've directly subrogated with them. You would've gotten your pain & suffering amount which, in most cases, cannot be touched by subrogation. This way if your health insurance tried to subrogate from you, they cannot because you have a legal challenge to fight it. This most likely wouldn't happen because the insurance companies would've settled it. If your medical expenses exceeded the policy maximum, then the auto insurance would've gone after their client for the difference. Your health insurance would've gotten reimbursed and you would've gotten pain and suffering. You also wouldn't have a lawyer fee. Your part of the settlement would have been less but part of settlement is possible subrogation costs which is factored in the amount if you allow the insurance company to pay you all of the settlement. Your lawyer should've asked for the policy maximum. This way you had the money to subrogate. They would've paid it. To them, it's just the cost of doing business.
In our case, I've notified all bills and Blue Cross. My wife is pregnant and I'm not doing anything until the baby is born and she can get checked out after he's born. If we settle before then, when she goes for a examination (X-rays and such they couldn't do in the ER due to the pregnancy) I'm not going to run it on our Blue Cross. I'll be a cash paying customer because the exam/tests are wreck related.
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