It Depends.
Your health insurance company has a right to be compensated out of your settlement for all the payments it made to your doctors and hospitals. This is called subrogation.
They hardly ever ask for all of it back.
If you have a hardship case – terrible permanent injuries, and the other driver has minimal coverage – they might waive their right to subrogation altogether. That means they will take nothing.
But I have also seen health insurers insist on 85% or 90% of their payments.A lot of the time, they want one third. Sometimes, one half. Today, one wouldn’t go lower than 85%.
When I call them up to ask them to reduce their claim, I try to have a “pitch” ready.
The pitch might be that the other insurance company wants a reduction because they are claiming my client helped cause the accident. Or that the other insurance company will contest that the medical expenses were caused by the accident, and were due to a preexisting condition.
Or that my client lost everything because of the accident, and the other side’s policy limits cannot pay for all her damages. Or that my client won’t settle unless they can net at least $_____ from the lawsuit.
We always work it out.
I have been a lawyer over 30 years. I’ve been asking insurance companies to pay more and take less the entire time. If you are worried that the insurance company you are dealing with will leave you high and dry, call me, William Strubbe, a Cincinnati Injury Lawyer. My phone is 513-621-4775.
Because all situations are different, and because there may be other facts pertaining to your case that I don’t know about, you should not rely on this answer for legal advice. I am not your attorney, and no lawyer client relationship has been formed. All discussions are limited to Ohio law unless otherwise indicated. And past performance cannot be used to predict future results.
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