How does using my health insurance affect my personal injury settlement?

Using your own health insurance to pay for injury-related treatment is usually the right financial decision, but it does have implications for your settlement. The main effect is subrogation: most health insurance policies contain a clause giving the insurer the right to be reimbursed from your settlement for the medical bills it paid related to the injury. This means a portion of your recovery may go back to your health insurer. However, using health insurance still benefits you in several important ways. First, your insurer pays providers at negotiated network rates that are far lower than billed charges, so the amount subject to reimbursement is typically much less than the full sticker price of treatment. Second, it keeps your bills current and prevents accounts from going to collections while your case is pending. Third, your attorney can frequently negotiate the subrogation lien downward — and in many cases reduce it proportionally to account for attorney fees under the "common fund" or "made whole" doctrines recognized in many states. The net result is usually that you keep more of your settlement than you would by treating on full-price medical liens. Always inform your attorney which insurer paid your bills so the lien can be properly negotiated.