man sues Stowe for groovy tripping

[speden]

Trust me when I tell you that the health insurers have not and do not seek reimbursement from third parties themselves. Neither do medicare or medicaide. Those letters (from Meridien, Rawlings and/or Ingenix) are an attempt to find out about a lawsuit and place the recipient on notice of the carriers right to recover the expenses in the suit.
There are valid business reasons for this.

Well they sure make it sound like they are trying to recover money themselves. Here's what it says on the last letter they sent me:

"Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Inc. (BCBSMA) has asked Healthcare Recoveries to help ensure accurate and appropriate reimbursement of medical expenses that may involve another party concerning reimbursement of medical expenses arising out of the above referenced treatment. We are in the process of reviewing claims to establish if another party was at fault and responsible for the treatment to you (or your dependent)."

And this is over medical bills of a couple hundred bucks where no lawsuit is even likely. Also once a year they want to know if I have any other medical insurance besides theirs (presumably so they can get some expenses paid by the other insurance).

 

[marcski]

Well they sure make it sound like they are trying to recover money themselves. Here's what it says on the last letter they sent me:

"Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Inc. (BCBSMA) has asked Healthcare Recoveries to help ensure accurate and appropriate reimbursement of medical expenses that may involve another party concerning reimbursement of medical expenses arising out of the above referenced treatment. We are in the process of reviewing claims to establish if another party was at fault and responsible for the treatment to you (or your dependent)."

And this is over medical bills of a couple hundred bucks where no lawsuit is even likely. Also once a year they want to know if I have any other medical insurance besides theirs (presumably so they can get some expenses paid by the other insurance).

Yes, once people realize who the true "evil-doers" are with regard to our legal system...tort reform will go the way of GSS on AZ. Insurance companies are evil. They collect their premiums...and then give anyone making a claim..(even their own insureds) a very hard time and fight tooth and nail even against a valid claim.

 

[jaywbigred]

I didn't mean to imply that the health insurer "requires" that a lawsuit be brought. However, where a claim is brought to recover for damages resulting from personal injury, most, if not all, private health insurance plans have a right of subrogation to recover the amounts paid for medical expenses. The health insurer could bring suit on its own behalf, but in practice they never do, but rely on the victim to do so and piggyback on the efforts of the plaintiff and plaintiffs lawyers. This is true also of medicare and medicaide. They actually have a lien on any recovery to the extent of their medical payments.

I think you are correct as to why a plaintiff would choose federal court in this situation.

The right of subrogation makes sense, but that is an interesting fact regarding medicare/medicaide liens...