Cal Biz Lit: Cal Supremes To Decide Personal Injury Reduced Medical Specials Issue

March 25, 2010

Cal Supremes To Decide Personal Injury Reduced Medical Specials Issue

CalBizLit has posted on numerous occasions on the cases addressing this question: "Just what does a personal injury plaintiff get when her medical bills are $200,000 but the hospitals and doctors have deals with the insurance companies, Medicaid (or MediCal as we Californians call it) or Medicare to take a whole bunch less as payment in full?" Previous posts are here, here and here. The defense has Hanif v. Housing Authority (1988) 200 Cal.App.3d 635 and Nishihama v. City and County of San Francisco (2001) 93 Cal.App.4th 298 both holding that the plaintiff only gets the medicals that were actually paid. After a concerted effort, the plaintiff side had Howell v. Hamilton Meats & Provisions holding to the contrary: that the plaintiff could recover the entire amount billed, regardless of what the providers too as payment in full.

But no more. Last week, the Cal Supremes granted a hearing in Howell, describing the issues to be decided as follows:

(1) Is the "negotiated rate differential" (the difference between the full billed rate for medical care and the actual amount paid as negotiated between a medical provider and an insurer) a collateral source benefit under the collateral source rule, which allows plaintiff to collect that amount as economic damages, or is the plaintiff limited in economic damages to the amount the medical provider accepts as payment? (2) Did the trial court err in this case when it permitted plaintiff to present the full billed amount of medical charges to the jury but then reduced the jury's award of damages by the negotiated rate differential?

So Howell is no longer citeable authority, and until the Supremes decide (many months from now), the only published decisions on these questions are the Hanif and Nishihama, both favoring the defense.

Posted at 04:06 PM in Appellate Law, California Courts, Civil Procedure and Discovery, Damages, Personal Injury Law, Product Liability Litigation | Permalink

The comments to this entry are closed.

Comments

If you are in uncomfortable position and have got no money to move out from that, you will need to receive the personal loans. Just because it should help you emphatically. I take collateral loan every year and feel OK just because of it.

Posted by: ShereeBooker | March 25, 2010 at 04:48 PM

People who have suffered from personal through no fault of their own, but by another person's mistake should be compensated at the very least for medical expenses. As for any potential "deals" that medical centers have with insurance companies, it's beside the point if the one suffering isn't being cared for by qualified medical staff who can aid in bringing him/her back to a reasonable level of wellness.

Posted by: Hudson Valley Personal Injury Lawyers | March 26, 2010 at 06:23 AM