Don’t Make This Lien Mistake

We get a lot of questions about liens; how they work, how they are calculated, how they should be sent, and more. However, one lien mistake that we see regularly is sending the lien electronically. Watch the video to learn more!

Transcript:

We hope you’re having a fantastic day. Of course, as a state association, we get a lot of calls on, you know how liens work because it can be moderately complicated, the formula can be a bit challenging, and as a result, when we get the calls, we see some mistakes that are made. So we wanted to point out one big one that we’re seeing, especially right now in the midst of the tail end of this pandemic, and some of the challenges we think everything can be done electronically. And here is the mistake that you don’t want to make. When you’re serving your lien don’t send it electronically. Don’t send it just via email. I mean, if you want to send it via email, that’s fine, but really, that’s not really going to be a lien. That’s just a notification that a lien is on its way, or whatever the case might be.

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The key to a lien is what the lien Act, the Healthcare Lien Act, says is a lien must be served by the US Postal Service, registered or certified mail, or be served in person. So this is important, when you lien the patient and you lien the responsible party for that bill, whether it be the insurer, the attorney, or all of them, which is what we recommend. We We recommend basically, kind of a shotgun approach, making sure that you lien everyone either potentially could be responsible for that bill. That lien has to be given to them either via registered or certified US postal mail or be made in person. So for practical sake, really, it’s going to be done via the US postal system. It’s going to be done through registered or certified mail. Whatever you do, don’t rely simply on an email. We’ve seen that mistake, and we’ve seen attorneys and insurers say, I’m sorry, that’s not a valid lien. That’s not what the Healthcare Lien Act requires, and we’re not going to honor the lien as a result. And our doctors have lost out, and it costs. I mean, it could cost potentially thousands of dollars. So we know it’s an additional expense to do the certified mail, but at the same time, you want to make sure that you’re following the law and making sure that you perfect that lien, if you will. So make sure that you mail that to the US Postal Service, registered or certified mail.

Now, if you want more information about liens in Illinois, I’d encourage you to jump out to ilchiro.org/liens, that’s liens, and once you’re there, you’ll see a great article that kind of walks through all the details. There’s also a download of an editable form, if you’re using this is another mistake we see, people that use their own lean form and don’t follow the exact form that’s required under the law. They give you an exact example, and we give you an editable form that you can pull into your own Word document and add all of the appropriate information for the particular patient that may be involved, or the third-party payers, or those that are responsible, and their information can be dropped in as well. So we would encourage you to jump out, download the right form, take a look at all of the different details that are required, and there’s also a link to a lien calculator. So if you want to key in all of the different information that you’ve got for a particular lien to find out if the offer that you’re being given is appropriate, that’s a way to do it. But whatever you do, the big mistake that we don’t want you to make, don’t just email a lien and expect it to be honored at this case, you’ve got to send that lien via the US Postal Service, registered or certified mail. We’ll catch you next week.