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MEDI-CAL lien; California
Anonymous2 views4 answers
We have entered into settlement in a case.Court approved the settlement.Even after 1 year , we have not yet received the funds.Defence attorney will not issue the check unless we obtain Medi-cal lien waiver or settlment with Medi-cal. Our attorneys have not been to get a response back from MEDI-CAL for the last one year about their lien. Medi-cal folks are overwhelmed with the work load it seems.
Plaintiff is severly disabled. Defence attorney refuses to issue the check to plaintiff's special needs trust. Defence attorney is asking plaintiff's attorney to sign a waiver that they will be responsible for Medi-Cal lien. Plaintiff's attorneys refuse to sign the waiver.As the plaintiff, please advice what to do? Thinking of complaining to Dept of Insurance & State bar association.
I assume that you owe money to a government agency and that no one will distribute the funds until the government entity is paid in full. The reason they are concerned is because they; insurance company and your attorney can be held personally responsible if the government does not receive their money. Go to your Congressmen or Senator. I bet they can make one call and get the lien information within weeks.
There are companies that specifically handle settlement of Medi-Cal liens. They charge a fee but, are usually better suited to resolve these liens more quickly. You should consult with your attorney about this.
MediCal has gone the way of Medicare, that is they take forever to respond to requests. There is a lot of information you haven't provided, such as have you received an itemized lien from MediCal yet? MediCare is obligated to reduce their lien by 25% to reflect attorney fees/costs. Furthermore, if you can argue due to comparative fault reasons you did not receive a full recovery then they as well are obligated to reduce their lien by the same percentage.
If you have an itemized lien and defense is willing to disburse a check in your name and your attorney's name in return for a hold harmless, I would do that and just keep the amount of the the lien in trust until the reductions are finalized. Regretfully, these statutory liens stemming from government assistance programs are causing long delays in resolving cases
When Medi-Cal is involed there is almost always a lot of red tape and delays which have little if anything to do with your attorney's handling of the case. I would schedule a meeting with your attorney and ask him what steps have been taken to move the matter along and resolve the lien. I do not think that complaining to either of those agencies will get you anywhere.
