What is Medical Lien Funding?

Medical Lien Funding Overview

If you were involved in a car accident, you are going through enough stress without worrying about how you will pay for your medical expenses.

Medical lien funding is a form of non-recourse financing that gives you cash when you need it most, allowing you to focus on recovering from your accident injuries.

As long as you have filed a personal injury claim and retained legal counsel, you are eligible to apply for medical lien funding. Like most pre-settlement legal funding, medical lien funding is structured as an advance against your anticipated court award or settlement. Your credit score is not a qualifying factor, and you won’t need to prove income or employment status.

What Is Medical Lien Funding?

Medical lien financing is a type of pre-settlement funding in the form of a cash advance. This funding helps you meet your expenses while you wait for compensation from a personal injury claim.

What is a Medical Lien?

In the context of a personal injury claim, a medical lien is a claim against your eventual settlement. Perhaps you were seriously injured and have a pile of unpaid medical bills incurred after an accident. If so, the hospital may file a medical lien if you fail to pay those bills.

Alternatively, you may need continuing medical care to treat accident-related injuries. In this case, your attorney might suggest that you work with a doctor or hospital on a medical lien basis. This option can be especially helpful if you do not carry adequate health insurance.

A medical lien-based doctor can also provide a comprehensive medical evaluation, which you can use to strengthen your claim.

A medical lien-based treatment team provides the medical care you need without requiring you to pay out of pocket, and without compromising the quality of that care. The medical providers know they will be paid directly from your settlement.

How Medical Lien Funding Works

A medical funding agency acts as a bridge between your lawyer and your medical provider.

Often, hospitals and healthcare providers place medical liens against patients to ensure that the treatment is paid for once the proceeds of the award or settlement are paid out. That said, placing a lien on a patient for care provided doesn’t necessarily mean the provider will continue delivering care if bills are not paid.

Medical lien funding agencies plug this gap, enabling patients to continue getting the care they need while guaranteeing payment to providers for treatment provided. The anticipated settlement serves as collateral in this transaction. When the settlement is reached, the funding agency is repaid in full.

How Medical Lien Financing Can Help

This form of financing is especially beneficial for accident victims who do not carry insurance. Similarly, patients with limited insurance coverage may also find medical lien financing a practical solution to spiraling medical bills after an accident.

Often, accident injuries lead to time off work and unexpected medical bills, as well as the costs of prescription medications and rehabilitative therapies. With funds potentially dwindling, medical lien financing allows you to access the medical care you need when you need it, even if you can’t pay upfront for your treatment or surgeries.

Who Qualifies for Medical Lien Funding?

Fortunately, qualifying for medical lien funding is typically straightforward. All you need is an active personal injury claim or lawsuit and an attorney representing you.

If you sustained serious accident injuries, you may be faced with expenses for any or all of the following:

• ER treatment
• Physical therapy
• Surgery
• Chiropractic care
• Pharmacy services
• Mental health care

Beyond this, obtaining a thorough medical evaluation will shore up your case. Again, this will cost money you might not want to pay out of pocket.

If you are faced with these expenses and unable to pay upfront or through insurance, medical lien funding can provide a risk-free option to get the continuing medical care you need.

The Difference Between Medical Lien Funding and Pre-Settlement Legal Funding

Medical lien funding should not be confused with pre-settlement legal funding, sometimes also referred to as legal funding.

When you apply for personal injury medical lien funding, the funding is intended purely for your medical expenses. As the accident injury victim, you benefit by getting the treatment, rehabilitation, or surgery you need. You do not see the funding in your bank account, though. The medical lien funding agency will pay the medical provider directly and be repaid from your subsequent settlement or award.

By contrast, once you are approved for pre-settlement legal financing, the funds will be deposited into your bank account. You can use these funds for any purpose.

These two forms of funding are similar in some ways. The only relevant factors when applying for either form of legal funding are your injuries and the strength of your claim. Neither your creditworthiness nor your income is relevant to your application.

Both medical lien funding and pre-settlement legal funding are non-recourse. This means you repay nothing unless you win your case. As such, both forms of funding are risk-free for accident injury victims.

Paying Back Personal Injury Medical Lien Funding

Medical lien funding is repaid when you win your case. If you do not win your case, you repay nothing.

You will also need to pay any other medical liens out of your settlement, as well as legal fees. If part of your care was paid for by Medicaid or Medicare, you may also need to reimburse them from your settlement. The same applies to any treatment paid for by workers’ compensation.

Your attorney will guide you through all aspects of your claim and any pre-settlement funding you decide to pursue.

What Happens If You Lose Your Case?

If your personal injury case goes to trial and you lose, you will not need to repay the medical lien funding agency.

You may still be responsible for paying other medical facilities and agencies that provided care unrelated to that medical lien funding.

What Comes Next?

If you feel you would benefit from medical lien funding, consult your attorney and then reach out to a funding agency for a risk-free way to secure quality medical care for your accident injuries.