Personal Injury Law

Corporate Greed At It?s Worst?.Health Insurance Scams and the Little Guy

By JimReed

Source: WikipediaThis recent CNN story (also pasted below), illustrates two problems I deal with on a daily basis in representing my injured clients:  1)  Giant corporations are heartless.  2) ALL the cards are stacked against the little guy.

In this case, a Wal-Mart employee, Debbie Shank, paid part of her hard-earned salary for health insurance coverage.  Debbie was then involved in a horrible car crash suffering permanent brain damage.  Her injury lawyers successfully recovered a $1million settlement on her behalf.  $417,000 of the settlement was put in a trust fund to pay for Debbie’s future medical care.

This is where things get nasty.  Wal-Mart ’s health insurance carrier said that they paid $470,000 in medical bills for Debbie’s care so they wanted EVERY PENNY of Debbie’s trust fund.  That’s right, every penny.  Leaving Debbie with nothing.

Now remember– Debbie PAID for her health coverage– it wasn’t something that Wal-Mart was kind enough to give to her.

So let’s see if we get this right:  Debbie paid for health coverage but now the health carrier wants to be paid back for everything they paid.  So, if the carrier gets paid back for everything they paid, what was Debbie paying for?  Doesn’t this mean that the insurance company gets a windfall– they collect premiums to pay for coverage and when they actually provide the coverage that they were paid for, they still have the right to be reimbursed?  Short answer:  Yes. (more…)

ShareThis

Full post as published by New York Injury Law Blog on March 29, 2008 (boomark / email).