When someone gets in a serious accident, medical care providers don’t wait to perform life-saving procedures and provide vital treatment, regardless of the patient’s insurance status. This care (though necessary and unexpected), unfortunately, comes at the expense of the patient. Since not everyone can write off steep medical expenses as they come, hospitals and medical care providers utilize medical funding companies. Apogee Capital Partners, LLC, explores medical liens—what they are and how they work.
What Is a Medical Lien?
A medical lien allows doctors and nurses to provide necessary medical treatment to accident victims without checking their insurance status. After hospitals have provided critical treatment, it’s not uncommon to find that the patient either has no insurance or inadequate coverage for the unanticipated procedures.
The facility that provided the service will place a medical lien on the cost of the victim’s care until the patient can cover the expenses after a personal injury settlement, or the negligent party or their insurance claim a verdict.
Medical Lien Limitations
In addition to addressing what medical liens are and how they work, we must address their limitations. The two main limitations of issuing a medical lien are:
- Medical care providers can only request liens when the treatment was within 72 hours of the accident.
- Medical liens cannot exceed 40 percent of the total settlement, verdict, compromise, etc., that the injured party receives from their claim.
What Legal Documents Can You Attach Liens To?
Medical liens are usually sent as a notice to the person who received the medical services. Medical facilities and providers may attach them to the following legal documents:
- Insurance settlements
- Court judgments
- Federal Employers’ Liability Act claims
- Workers’ compensation claims
Why Do Medical Care Providers Place Liens?
Medical liens are given in the interest of the medical care providers. Legal hospital funding ensures that providers receive payment for their costly services and also help pay for continuing medical operations for other accident victims.
Why Do Some Medical Care Providers Sell Liens?
In some cases, patients are never able to fulfill the medical lien. The reasoning behind not paying a medical lien varies—some people simply defer their payment, while others who are trying to pay off their lien struggle to reach a court settlement. In addition to the time in waiting for settlement and the cost of money, the health care provider also incurs additional labor costs of servicing and collecting on the receivables.
Luckily, medical facilities can sell their liens to medical lien purchasing companies, such as Apogee Capital Partners. We guarantee reimbursement for all your service and treatment liens that have taken over 18 months to resolve. Selling medical liens relieves providers of the hassle of tracking down former patients for financial resolution.
