If you have been injured, and subsequently filed a personal injury claim, what follows can be a bit of a whirlwind. Between legal filings, paperwork, court appearances, and – most importantly – your recovery, it’s easy for things to fall through the cracks. While an experienced attorney will help you to keep everything on track, there are some important things to know, particularly if you are a recipient of Medicare.
If you are insured by Medicare, they will pay for the medical care necessary to treat your injury. If you receive a settlement or compensation, you are required to reimburse Medicare for those expenses.
Medicare has a right to this reimbursement. In fact, to protect that right they will place a lien on any compensation you receive from your personal injury claim. This is similar to the practice of private health care insurers. However, while private insurance companies will allow you to negotiate, Medicare does not give you any wiggle room on the lien amount.
Once you have received a settlement or judgment on your personal injury claim, you have 60 days to report it to Medicare. If you fail to do so, you could be facing fines as high as $1,000 per day. The easiest way to report the outcome of your claim is electronically, on the Medicare website.
Medicare will let you know within 120 days how much they expect to be reimbursed, and they will provide specific information about the treatments and charges included in the reimbursement. Look at this information carefully. They are only entitled to reimbursements for treatments related to your personal injury claim.
While you are recovering from an injury, your primary focus should always be your health. Having a skilled attorney means being able to rely on someone to guide you through the process of a personal injury claim from beginning to end. Contact the Wilton Law Firm for experienced personal injury representation.
