How Does the Made Whole Doctrine Affect Insurance Claims in Colorado?

 Posted on May 18, 2020 in Personal Injury

Colorado’s relatively new Made Whole Doctrine serves to protect you from losing all or a significant amount of your liability claim benefits to an insurance company. It is important to understand how this law works so that you know you are getting the compensation that you deserve if you have suffered a personal injury due to another party’s negligence. Even though this law is designed to protect you, you still must work with a qualified personal injury attorney to pursue compensation in court and ensure that insurance companies are not violating any part of the Made Whole Doctrine.

Compensation Before the Made Whole Doctrine

Before the Colorado legislature amended state insurance laws to include the Made Whole Doctrine, health insurance companies or medical providers were allowed to subrogate (substitute themselves as the primary recipient of your personal injury claim) to guarantee that their costs were covered in full before you, the insured, received any compensation. As you could imagine, this caused a lot of problems. For example, if you were involved in a car accident and accrued medical bills that totaled $150,000, but you only received $100,000 in compensation from an at-fault driver's insurance policy or a personal injury lawsuit, the health insurance company could take the entire amount of compensation you received, and you would still be at a loss. Since the goal of compensating an injured party for his or her losses should not harm him or her financially, the Made Whole Doctrine needed to be implemented. 

Your Legal Compensation With the Made Whole Doctrine

Under the Made Whole Doctrine, your attorney can reduce or eliminate a health insurance company or medical provider's claim to a personal injury settlement. The law specifically states that medical insurers or "payers of benefits" are not allowed to receive any repayment of benefits provided until the injured party is fully compensated for his or her damages. If the compensation received through an auto insurance claim or personal injury lawsuit fully covers the damages you have suffered, your attorney can ensure that you will be able to keep the full amount of this money without having to repay it to a medical provider. A common situation in which a medical provider will not be paid because the injured party was not “made whole” is if the injured party settles for an amount within the defendant’s insurance policy limits, and this amount is not enough to fully cover the costs of the treatment provided. In these cases, the Made Whole Doctrine will require the health insurer or medical provider to drop any claims against the injured party.

Contact a Fort Collins Car Accident Lawyer

Colorado's insurance laws, with the addition of the Made Whole Doctrine, are designed to protect you. However, it is imperative that you seek the counsel of an experienced Larimer County personal injury attorney if you or a loved one have been injured in a motor vehicle crash. In some cases, your injuries may be the direct result of another party’s negligence. At Hoggatt Law, P.C., we will aggressively fight for the compensation that you need and deserve, and we will work with you to ensure that you can address claims by health insurers or medical providers. Call us today at 970-225-2190 to schedule your free initial consultation.

Source:

https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/images/olls/crs2016-title-10.pdf