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Protecting Your Interests And Your Bottom Line
Registering Medical Liens To Recover Health Care Expenses
At Kottemann Law Firm, LLC, many of our Louisiana clients are hospitals, clinics and health professionals. Many hospitals have a large number of cases with us, and we handle medical collection cases using most of the same effective methods of litigation and enforcement that we use for other clients. We also use one method of debt settlement that is available only to medical professionals: a medical lien.
In Louisiana, if medical services such as surgery or physical therapy have been provided as a result of an accident, a patient who is unable to pay may have a personal injury lawsuit that claims medical expenses as part of the damages. Health care providers may expect that the proceeds will be used to compensate them for their services.
Unfortunately, that is not always the case. Sometimes a patient who has won an award will do so partially on the basis of medical expenses but will fail to use the award to pay those expenses.
Taking A Strategic Approach To Secure Debt
Our role in these cases is to ensure that if there is an award, health care providers are compensated for services provided. To do so, we register a medical lien on the award.
Our attorneys will:
- Collect all the information, including insurance claim information
- Contact the insurance company that will be responsible for paying the award
- Contact the attorneys involved in the lawsuit
- Contact the debtor, if he or she is not represented
- After 90 days, check on the status of the case
A medical lien does not need to be filed in court. It simply needs to take the form of a letter, properly written and delivered to the appropriate parties as per Louisiana statute requirements, detailing the dates and services provided and their costs. In some cases, it is necessary to file a medical lien and also file a collection petition. Any proceeds from the personal injury case will then be paid by the lawsuit.
Because personal injury cases can take several years to settle, it is important for us to keep up to date on the progress of the lawsuit.
If your clinic or your hospital has not been paid for health care services that have been provided, contact our Kenner medical lien attorneys via our online form or by calling 504-456-1491 or 877-456-1091 for a free consultation.
Let us see if a medical lien is appropriate in your case.
