If Bills Are Covered By Health Insurance, Can You Claim That Money In Suit?

The short answer is yes

A person filing a personal injury lawsuit may seek to recover medical expenses even if those medical expenses were paid through health insurance or some type of other insurance plan. However, there are two very important issues that arise when insurance pays for medical expenses.

The first issue is subrogation. Most health insurance policies have subrogation clauses. In general, these clauses say that the health insurance company will pay for any medical care that its customers incur as a result of an accident. However, if the customer makes a recovery against a third-party (in a settlement or lawsuit) then the customer has to use the proceeds to reimburse the insurance company back the amount the insurance company paid. So a victim can try to recover the medical expenses, but then the victim may have to use the proceeds to pay the health insurance company back.

Subrogation is complicated because there is often a dispute about how much the victim has to pay back, if any. There are a number of different legal issues that govern this question depending on the specific facts of the case. The fight over the amount to be paid back often takes months to resolve.