General Category > General Questions

Liens

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PMRNC:
A letter of protection is basically a promise by the attorney for the patient that they will pay all charges upon settlement. Whenever the patient has an open case and an attorney on record, they are going for a settlement. The Letter of protection protects the provider and ensures when the attorney collects, the provider is paid their due payment.  It does NOT speed process up, as some cases have taken us 2 years to collect but they do ensure payment upon settlement.

The process is quite simple, we just simply send a letter (certified) to the patients attorney with a cc to the patient requesting a "Letter of protection"  If the attorney sends one it might look like this :

Dear Dr  SMITH

We would like to verify that we have taken on one of your recent patients personal injury claims. Thomas Jones first retained our services in conjunction with a MVA on 5/1/2010, seeking compensation for the other driver’s negligence. We have therefore taken on said case, and are confident we will get a cash settlement very soon.

You can be assured that when we do receive the cash settlement, any outstanding debts Mr. Jones has with you, specifically Account # 00000, will be paid in full.

We thank you for your cooperation!

 Ambulance chasers LLC  (LOL)

We make sure when we request this LOP we use a patient account number, request the case number, adjusters information (certain wc cases) etc. This LOP is then put in the patients file and the file in the PM system is flagged.


I'm still curious as to HOW your provider got a hold of certain accounts to put a lien on a patient.. ??? ???

DMK:
Regarding W/C liens (and I'm only basing this on California experience) A lien gets filed with the Worker's Comp Appeals Board for unpaid claims.  They are more and more common since the W/C laws changed. 

Re-reading your post, the chiro filed a lien with the attorney? on a W/C case?  That's unusual.  Usually the patient doesn't get an attorney until the case gets sticky, and by then the chiro would have already filed a lien at the Appeals Board so that the case couldn't get closed without all the bills being paid...

That being said, chiros in California learned the hard way how fast the laws changed.  If treatment wasn't authorized, they weren't going to get paid, period.  Attorney or not.

Also, in California, if you have a denial from the W/C insurance company, you can bill the patient's health insurance or the patient directly. 

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