Medical Lien Fundingl What is it?

As we can all appreciate, attorneys and clients are not the only ones with funding/cash-flow needs. How about physicians, mri facilities, surgeons, chiros and physical therapists to name a few. In accident cases where there are no available first-party insurance benefits(like worker's comp. or no-fault) medical providers are forced to treat plaintiffs on a "lien".
This arrangement can be beneficial to the client, medical provider and attorney;
a. client-gets necessary treatment and does not have to pay until the case is settled;
b. medical providers are not bound by the notorious low fees inherent in no-fault and worker's comp. fee schedules and
c. attorney-due to the client's ability to get necessary treatment, cases now can get the proper "medical workup; increasing the value of the case.
So everybody's a winner ? Not all the time. There are endemic problems that result from treating plaintiffs on a lien;
1. Medical providers may over- treat; recognizing that almost all liens are negotiated;
2. Most medical providers don't address the "merits of the case". Since a lien is conditioned on the ultimate success of the case, a lien on a bad case is basically worthless; and
3. Liens are always negotiated down. So it is not a perfect world; as you can see.
So what is medical lien funding? This is a funding transaction, where for a discounted price we purchase the lien from the doctor directly. We underwrite the case exactly as we would a plaintiff's funding application. After payment is made to the medical provider , the funder owns the lien and assumes all the risk.
At the end of the day the medical provider gets "cash on the barrelhead" and the funder can make a nice profit....if the case does not tank....
If you are a medical provider, call me to discuss in more detail.