CUTTING EDGE INDUSTRY THOUGHT LEADERSHIP INSIGHTS

This case involved a serious slip and fall accident that happened on a cruise ship while it was at sea. The plaintiff suffered significant injures, incurring medical damages in excess of $540,000. The injured plaintiff engaged a seasoned trial attorney, but due to liability issues the plaintiff only received a fraction of the case value.  Following […]

Maryland Suspends Attorney for Failure to Repay Healthcare Reimbursement Claim Failing to deal with the subrogation/reimbursement claims of health insurance carriers has proven to be a possible career ending mistake for one Maryland personal injury attorney.  In the September 2013 Maryland Court of Appeals’ review of the disciplinary ruling of Attorney Grievance Commission of Maryland […]

The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) is a federal law that sets minimum standards for most voluntarily established pension and health plans in private industry to provide protection for individuals in these plans. The United States District Court for the District of Arizona issued an order in Blood Systems, Inc. v. Roesler, […]

By: Synergy’s Director of Lien Resolution The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) is a federal law that sets minimum standards for most voluntarily established pension and health plans in private industry to provide protection for individuals in these plans. As every plaintiff’s attorney knows, the rights of self-funded ERISA qualified plans are […]

On March 17, 2014 the trial court in the infamous U.S. Airways v McCutchen entered an order allowing Mr. McCutchen to amend his answer to include affirmative defenses and a counter-claim.  The court allowed this unusually late amendment to pleadings as result of U.S. Airways’s failure to produce the Master Plan Document (MPD) until just […]

Unfortunately, as part of the budget signed by President Obama on the 26th of December (Merry Xmas), a legislative fix for Ahlborn was made law.  Now, Medicaid liens are like Medicare liens in the sense that they are super liens.  Medicaid will be able to assert its lien against the entirety of the settlement instead […]

By Dave Place, J.D., Director of Lien Resolution

In the wake of the disastrous holding in U.S. Airways v. McCutchen, 569 U. S.        (2013) plaintiffs and their attorneys are crying out for an end to the Draconian tyranny of self-funded ERISA plans’ subrogation practices.  As you may recall, Mr. McCutchen was severely injured, incurring nearly $67,000.00 in medical damages, in a motor vehicle accident that killed or seriously injured three (3) other people.  Mr. McCutchen was able to recover $10,000.00 from the tortfeasor’s Bodily Injury coverage and another $100,000.00 from his own Under Insured Motorist coverage.  Despite this six figure recovery, Mr. McCutchen was $867.00 worse off from having brought a claim due to paying attorney fees, litigation costs, and repaying the U.S. Airways self-funded ERISA plan.   In light of this reality, the question being raised by so many is “will the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“PPACA”) bring any relief?”

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Synergy negotiated directly with the Plan Administrator and within three (3) weeks had secured a reduction of 50% from Plan Administrator. This was  savings of $13,334.59 to the injured plaintiff.