Low-income victims of automobile collisions rely on Medicaid to cover their medical bills. But what happens when the hospitals and doctors who provide these victims medical care never send the bills to Medicaid? What happens when medical providers try to profit from their misfortune rather than submit the bills to Medicaid, even when the victims provide their Medicaid cards? What happens when the hospitals refuse repeated requests to do so?

Rather than billing Medicaid, unethical hospitals and doctors deliberately bypass Medicaid and place a lien, an interest over an asset or property to secure the payment of a debt owed, on automobile collision settlements. This means hospitals and other major health systems will receive funds that would otherwise go to automobile collision victims through settlements to compensate for the pain and suffering they endured.

The New York Times noted the extreme challenges this deception presents for low-income car crash victims in an article from February 1, 2021, on how rich, major health systems continue to profit from automobile accident patients.

The practice of bypassing insurers at the expense of victims of automobile collisions has become common among major health systems nationwide, and specifically in Illinois, as they seek to squeeze out the last dollar wherever they can. We’ve seen this deceptive business tactic used against our clients. This deceptive business tactic is especially jarring when major health systems receive more by pursuing compensation from automobile collision victims’ settlements than by billing Medicaid directly.

There are differences in what major health systems may recover from Medicaid versus from liens placed on settlements. Some differences exceed $50,000. This is due, in part, to Medicaid paying lower reimbursement rates than private health insurance plans. Hospitals and major health systems attempt to exploit this reality – and unfortunately, get away with it and receive more from placing liens on settlements. This deceptive business tactic has persisted, even amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The downfall of this? Automobile accident victims are forced to turn over a portion – and often a substantial portion – of whatever settlement they receive from negligent drivers to the already financially superior hospitals and major health systems. This, in turn, puts even less money in the victims’ pockets to help recover and get back on their feet following devastating automobile collisions, just when they need it most.

Learn more about these cases and others in which doctors' and health systems' decisions lead to injury and hardship.