Texas Personal Injury Law Blog

             When dealing with insurance companies, it is important to understand a few of their secrets so that you can get the settlement you deserve: 

• Insurers make money in part by denying you benefits. They may try to discourage you from seeking medical treatment (especially from chiropractors), or they may tell you that rental car coverage is limited to a set number of days. In most cases, this is not true, and, if you are not at fault, you are entitled to have all of your reasonable damages and expenses covered.

• Insurance companies track every claim you make. When dealing with an insurance company, assume that it knows the history of every claim you have ever made, even if a claim was with a different company. 

• The adjustor is not your friend. Despite his protests, he is not there to help you—he is there to reduce the insurance company’s payment as much as possible. You are also not required to give an adjustor a recorded statement or a medical authorization. If you feel you are not being treated fairly, it may be time to get an attorney involved.

I’ve written a number of posts on insurance subrogation and how our government is protecting the insurance companies at the expense of innocent victims.  The tragedy of insurance subrogation is that if a person is injured as a result of the negligence of another person (such as through an auto accident or medical malpractice) and the victim brings suit against the person who caused the injury, then the victim’s health insurance company sweeps in to snatch up the money received from any settlement or verdict.  If the health insurance company falls under the Federal Government’s definition of an ERISA plan (which most do), Federal law says that the health insurance company is entitled to a full reimbursement of any money that it paid out for the victim’s medical treatment — Even if this means that the victim is left with nothing.  Of course, the health insurance company does not pay the victim back for the thousands of dollars that the victim paid the health insurance company in premiums!  The link below is for a news video detailing a case in which a widower was the victim of ERISA subrogation.  The news story gives an excellent portrayal of how insurance subrogation applies to the detriment of innocent victims.  I highly recommend this video:

 News Cast on ERISA Subrogation Victim