In a personal injury action, the
injured person may recover past and future pain and suffering, special damages,
medical expenses and wage losses.
Ordinarily, an insurance company
paying wage loss or medical expense benefits in connection with a work injury
has a right to recover for medical expenses and wage loss benefits in an action
against a negligent party who caused the work injury.
It is not clear whether future
medical expenses or wage loss benefits are recoverable.
Usually, the courts do not allow
the negligent party to offer evidence that the injured person has received
money from other sources, including workers’ compensation, in order to reduce
the damages payable to the injured party.
This rule, however, is limited in
medical negligence actions, in which an injured person “is precluded from
recovering damages for past medical expenses or past lost earnings incurred to
the time of trial to the extent that the loss is covered by a private or public
benefit...that the claimant has received prior to trial.”
This means that in a medical negligence action, the injured party is not allowed to collect for past medical expenses or wage loss benefits if those expenses have been paid by a workers’ compensation carrier.
Bottom line: If you are collecting workers’ compensation
benefits and are pursuing a medical negligence action arising out of treatment
for the work injury, the attorney representing you in the medical negligence
action has to be very careful about settling the case if he does not understand
how the MCARE Act interacts with the workers’ compensation act.
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