Attorney fees and Medicaid lien cap in North Carolina personal injury cases
July 17, 2009
Just had a great straight forward question about the interaction of Medicaid Liens, Attorney Fees, and medical provider liens pursuant to NCGS 44-49-50.
QUESTION: Is Medicaid's lien capped at one third of liability proceeds received or half of what is left over after attorney's fees? In other words, if I am pro-rating a Medicaid lien with 44-49 liens and my fee is 25%, are they still sharing a third or are they sharing 37.5%?
ANSWER: Medicaid gets no more than 1/3 of the total settlement. Your attorney fees are irrelevant to Medicaid's share. The most Medicaid can get is 1/3 of the settlement, even if you charge only 1 dollar as a fee.
Medicaid will prorate with NCGS 44-49/50 liens within their 1/3 share. But remember that paying the parorata share of the 44-49/50 liens does not extinguish the balance of the medical bill. The client still owes the balance after the prorata share unless you negotiate a "final payment" compromise with the mediacl provider. 44-49/50 simply act as as a way to get the lawyer out of the middle and get the provider some money before they have to turn to a collection action to get it.
The 1/3 (or Medicaid's portion thereof) DOES take care of Medicaid, in full.
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Chris Nichols
Fantastic job on the blog, Chris :) I'll be checking back in again! -Cat
Posted by: Catherine Flowers | August 24, 2009 at 01:35 PM
Nice blog you got right here. Would you be interested in exchanging links?
Posted by: Ohio personal injury lawyer | March 13, 2010 at 02:07 AM
Informative blog, nice sharing your thoughts with us.
Posted by: Minnesota Lawyer | April 01, 2010 at 10:30 PM
It's usually pretty easy to take care of things like this. Most of the time, we just need a little more information about your account or latest transactions.
Posted by: BitTrend | May 02, 2011 at 04:29 AM
I also have that question in my mind and I am happy to finally found the best answer for it. I have been looking for that answer for over a day now.
Posted by: Dallas Injury Lawyer | July 25, 2011 at 04:15 AM