Huh? Is there a positive effect of having DPW/welfare involved in your injury case?
If the Pennsylvania Department of Humans Services/Welfare (better known as the DPW) is involved in your case it is not necessarily a bad thing.
Why?
Well the bad news is that legally you are required to reimburse DPW for any liens, cash or medical bills they paid in your injury case.
This often arises when the victim does not have a secondary source of health insurance.
Suppose you are involved in a serious auto injury case.
Your auto insurance company is required by law to pay at least the first $5000 in medical bills in your case. They are what is called primary.
However what happens if you have massive bills and have no other health insurance? Sometimes the claim and the medical bills are then turned over to DPW for payment.
So the bad news is that the DPW lien must be repaid as part of your settlement. It is the Law.
But there are 3 advantages with DPW being involved in your case.
The 1st advantage is that DPW greatly reduces the amount of the medical bill you owe the Hospital.
AND the hospital or other medical provider usually is required to accept the DPW payment in full for their bill.
I just had a case last week where the client/victims medical bill from an extended hospital stay was over $15000. The amount DPW paid on the $15000 bill to the hospital was $1000.
So your advantage is instead of being stuck with a $15000 bill you’re only dealing with a $1000 bill from DPW.
The 2nd advantage to having DPW involved is that they cannot by law recover more in any settlement of your case than YOU receive.
If they pay out $400,000 in costs and the net recovery (after costs and attorney fees) is $200,000 they cannot get more than $100,000 of the net amount.
The 3rd advantage Pittsburgh injury attorney and injury settlement lawyer Bernie Tully sees with having DPW involved in your case is that you get a credit for attorney’s fees on any amount that you owe DPW.
The bottom line is just because DPW is involved in your injury claim is not necessarily a black cloud over your case. There are in fact some practical advantages to having them involved in paying some of your medical bills.
Anyway that’s how Pittsburgh medical lien, DPW lien and injury settlement attorney Bernie Tully sees it.
What do you think about this?
I would love to hear from you.
Thanks for reading!
Bernie the attorney