This is not uncommon. If someone is injured, and sues for medical costs, the insurance
company that has already paid those medical costs expects to be reimbursed. This
can come as a big surprise to people who think of that money as "theirs."

Of all the healthcare dollars spent in the USA, it is *obscene* how much goes to
lawyers, court costs, etc.

"Yang, AthD (h.c), Kicking AWOL's Cocaine Snorting *****"
<eacmole@/*AWOLBUSH*/mail.com> wrote:

Always Low Morals


http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/D68CD3B

C09EC17C98625705F0015F59F?OpenDocument

Debbie Shank stocked shelves at a Wal-Mart store in Cape Girardeau,
Mo., until five years ago, when her minivan was hit by a
tractor-trailer. Her Wal-Mart health insurance paid the medical bills.
Proceeds from a lawsuit helped finance her care in a nursing home.

Brain damage forces her to use a wheelchair and limits her upper body
movement to one arm and two fingers. It stole her memory and her
ability to talk to her husband and three sons.

"She'll ask about the boys, she'll ask about the cat," said her
husband, Jim Shank. "Whenever I'm there, she thinks it must be a
mealtime. We don't really hold a conversation."

Now the Shanks face a new obstacle. Her Wal-Mart health insurance plan
wants the lawsuit money to repay its costs.

Last week, the health plan sued Debbie Shank in federal court in St.
Louis, demanding the full $417,000 she got in the civil suit - PLUS at
least $51,000 more from the share that already went to lawyers and
costs

This is not uncommon. If someone is injured, and sues for medical costs, the insurance
company that has already paid those medical costs expects to be reimbursed.

This
can come as a big surprise to people who think of that money as "theirs."

Of all the healthcare dollars spent in the USA, it is *obscene* how much goes to
lawyers, court costs, etc.

-----

Yang
a.a. #28
AthD (h.c.) conferred by the regents of the LCL
a.a. pastor #-273.15, the most frigid church of Celcius nee Kelvin
EAC Econometric Forecast and Sorcery Division
Proudly plonked by Lani Girl and Crazyalec (aka

little poltregeist *****)

The Bush 'balanced' budget: 1.6 trillion and worsening
The Bush 'economic' policy: 12.5 million FEWER jobs than Clinton and

counting

The Bush Iraq lie: -1853 GIs, one friend's co-worker's son and

mounting

Having Bush ***** up my country: Worthless

Bush inherited this from clinton
Both the budget and the middle east
He is the cause
Without clinton none of this would exist

Don't buy the lie

Bush inherited this from clinton
Both the budget and the middle east
He is the cause
Without clinton none of this would exist

Bush inherited this from clinton

Both the budget and the middle east
He is the cause
Without clinton none of this would exist

Don't buy the lie

Bush inherited this from clinton
Both the budget and the middle east
He is the cause
Without clinton none of this would exist

Don't buy the lie

Bush inherited this from clinton
Both the budget and the middle east
He is the cause
Without clinton none of this would exist

Don't buy the lie

Bush inherited this from clinton
Both the budget and the middle east
He is the cause
Without clinton none of this would exist

Don't buy the lie

In episode <bl55g1pgoaisk125e4viqvrdj9gu6dli1j@4ax.com>, Yang, AthD (h.c),
Kicking AWOL's Cocaine Snorting ***** burst into the room and exclaimed:

Always Low Morals


http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/D68CD3BC09EC17C98625705F0015F59F?OpenDocument


Debbie Shank stocked shelves at a Wal-Mart store in Cape Girardeau, Mo.,
until five years ago, when her minivan was hit by a tractor-trailer. Her
Wal-Mart health insurance paid the medical bills. Proceeds from a lawsuit
helped finance her care in a nursing home.

Brain damage forces her to use a wheelchair and limits her upper body
movement to one arm and two fingers. It stole her memory and her ability
to talk to her husband and three sons.

"She'll ask about the boys, she'll ask about the cat," said her husband,
Jim Shank. "Whenever I'm there, she thinks it must be a mealtime. We don't
really hold a conversation."

Now the Shanks face a new obstacle. Her Wal-Mart health insurance plan
wants the lawsuit money to repay its costs.

Last week, the health plan sued Debbie Shank in federal court in St.
Louis, demanding the full $417,000 she got in the civil suit - PLUS at
least $51,000 more from the share that already went to lawyers and costs

The news was talking about the Vioxx case today and I flippantly remarked
that it won't be long before the corporations have the "right" to sue
people who die from the medications provided by those same corporations.

I, erm, thought I was being flippant...

Cocaine Snorting *****" <eacmole@/*AWOLBUSH*/mail.com> wrote:

Always Low Morals

That's Fundamentalist Christians for you.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/D68CD3BC09EC17C98625705F0015F59F?OpenDocument


Debbie Shank stocked shelves at a Wal-Mart store in Cape Girardeau,
Mo., until five years ago, when her minivan was hit by a
tractor-trailer. Her Wal-Mart health insurance paid the medical bills.
Proceeds from a lawsuit helped finance her care in a nursing home.

Brain damage forces her to use a wheelchair and limits her upper body
movement to one arm and two fingers. It stole her memory and her
ability to talk to her husband and three sons.

"She'll ask about the boys, she'll ask about the cat," said her
husband, Jim Shank. "Whenever I'm there, she thinks it must be a
mealtime. We don't really hold a conversation."

Now the Shanks face a new obstacle. Her Wal-Mart health insurance plan
wants the lawsuit money to repay its costs.

Last week, the health plan sued Debbie Shank in federal court in St.
Louis, demanding the full $417,000 she got in the civil suit - PLUS at
least $51,000 more from the share that already went to lawyers and
costs

Insurer wants woman's crash settlement
By Robert Patrick
Of the Post-Dispatch
08/15/2005

Debbie Shank stocked shelves at a Wal-Mart store in Cape Girardeau,
Mo., until five years ago, when her minivan was hit by a
tractor-trailer. Her Wal-Mart health insurance paid the medical bills.
Proceeds from a lawsuit helped finance her care in a nursing home.

Brain damage forces her to use a wheelchair and limits her upper body
movement to one arm and two fingers. It stole her memory and her
ability to talk to her husband and three sons.

"She'll ask about the boys, she'll ask about the cat," said her
husband, Jim Shank. "Whenever I'm there, she thinks it must be a
mealtime. We don't really hold a conversation."

Now the Shanks face a new obstacle. Her Wal-Mart health insurance plan
wants the lawsuit money to repay its costs.

Last week, the health plan sued Debbie Shank in federal court in St.
Louis, demanding the full $417,000 she got in the civil suit - plus at
least $51,000 more from the share that already went to lawyers and
costs.

A suit such as this is not uncommon, and is a way for self-financed
health plans - employer and union-funded plans - to recoup medical
expenses, say lawyers who handle health and insurance law.

A Wal-Mart spokesman said the health plan has made no decision on
whether to pursue this case; the suit puts a legal foot in the door
before the deadline to file it passes. "This is kind of a standard
procedure, and it just preserves our options," Marty Hires said.

It has the potential to hit Debbie Shank, 50, particularly hard.

"I can't believe that they've done this," said Maurice Graham, one of
her lawyers.

"The cost to care for her in the future is going to be literally
millions," Graham said. "She is confined to a nursing home, has a
normal life expectancy and requires full-time care."

Shank and her husband sued G.E.M. Transportation Inc. and Texas truck
driver James David Shivers in federal court in September 2000 after
Shank was hit by the tractor-trailer while making a U-turn on Highway
177 near Cape Girardeau, according to the original lawsuit.

Shank suffered injuries to her brain stem and other body parts and was
in a coma after the accident, the suit says.

The Shanks settled in August 2002 for $900,000. After attorneys' fees
and expenses, an irrevocable trust set up for Debbie Shank got
$417,477 and her husband got $119,280, according to court documents.

Jim Shank, 52, who does maintenance and risk management work at
Southeast Missouri State University and also is a real estate agent,
is not named in the health plan's lawsuit.

Lawyers familiar with employment law said that while state law
generally bars a health insurance company from trying to get a piece
of a settlement, self-funded health plans are allowed under federal
law to recover their costs.

In this case, Shank's total medical expenses exceed $469,216, the suit
says.

Wal-Mart's health plan explicitly states that it gets reimbursed first
out of any settlement or judgment, up to 100 percent of the total
amount of the medical expenses, according to the lawsuit filed by the
Administrative Committee of the Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Associates'
Health and Welfare Plan. The plan also explicitly states that, "All
attorney's fees and court costs are the responsibility of the
participant, not the plan," the suit says.

For Shank, that would mean coming up with at least $51,000 more than
she received.

The suit also seeks attorneys' fees, costs and interest for the
expense of suing Shank to recover the money.

Graham said the settlement money was placed in a trust created by the
federal court, "so this money never came into the hands of Debbie
Shank or her husband ... and is only to be used for her support."

Only a portion of the settlement was for medical bills, Graham said.

The health plan's suit says it was never notified of the settlement or
the creation of the trust, and Shank and her lawyers were repeatedly
told that the health plan expected "100 percent repayment."

An attorney for the plan, Christopher Hedican, said he was "not
authorized" to talk about the case.

Wal-Mart spokesman Hires would not comment further, citing federal
health privacy law and the lack of a final decision about whether to
pursue the case.

St. Louis lawyer Sheldon Weinhaus, who has handled similar suits, said
it is not unusual for employer-sponsored health plans to try to
recover money from lawsuits.

"Wal-Mart has certainly been one of the more aggressive and assertive
in doing this," he added.

He said courts are becoming more critical of suits filed by health
plans. "They recognize the unfairness of this, and they're looking for
reasons to stop Wal-Mart and others from doing this ... in my
opinion," he said.

Jim Singer, who battled Weinhaus on a case involving a union-funded
health plan, disagreed about a change of attitudes in the court
system. "I don't know that that's true. I haven't seen that."

Singer said that using lawsuits prevents cuts in benefits or increases
in worker contributions to the plan. "You need to put the money back
in the trust so it will be available for other people," he said.

Jim Shank said his wife bounced from job to job until she found the
night shift stocking shelves at Wal-Mart, which allowed her to be home
for her sons during the day - to be a better mother, he said.

"It's all she ever wanted to be," he said.

Now, although she knows her middle son is in the Army, she doesn't
know that the 17-year-old is scheduled to head to Iraq next year, or
even that there is a war.

Jim Shank has dreaded something like this since he got a letter two
weeks after the accident, while his wife was still in intensive care,
"clinging to life."

He recalls the letter saying he had to sign over any right to lawsuit
proceeds or the health plan would not pay for his wife's care.

He said that if the Wal-Mart health plan pursues the case, and wins,
his wife would likely lose the caretaker who "stays with her and works
with her and helps her and tries to keep her in good spirits," he
said. And they might have to sell the van they bought to accommodate
her wheelchair.

He also said that a lawyer who specializes in elder law said several
years ago that if the money runs out, he might have to divorce his
wife to make her eligible for Medicaid.

Their 30th anniversary is in October.

/end


--

Contempt of Congress meter reading-offscale.
Hello, theocracy with a fundamentalist US Supreme
Court who will ensure church and state are joined
at the hip like clergy and altar boys.
America 1776-Jan 2001 RIP

"As democracy is perfected, the office of president
represents, more and more closely, the inner soul
of the people. On some great and glorious day the
plain folks of the land will reach their heart's
desire at last and the White House will be adorned
by a downright moron." --- H.L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)

Religion is the original war crime.
-Michelle Malkin (Feb 26, 2005)

What does this have to do with the bible or GOD?

Please do not get mad If I did IM sorry ,but we would like to talk about the
bible and our LORD.

GOD BLESS YOU,

Vietnam Vet

What does this have to do with the bible or GOD?
Please do not get mad If I did IM sorry ,but we would like to talk about the
bible and our LORD.
GOD BLESS YOU,
Vietnam Vet

"Yang, AthD (h.c), Kicking AWOL's Cocaine Snorting *****"
<eacmole@/*AWOLBUSH*/mail.com> wrote in message
news:bl55g1pgoaisk125e4viqvrdj9gu6dli1j@4ax.com...

Always Low Morals


http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/D68CD3BC09EC17C98625705F0015F59F?OpenDocument


Debbie Shank stocked shelves at a Wal-Mart store in Cape Girardeau,
Mo., until five years ago, when her minivan was hit by a
tractor-trailer. Her Wal-Mart health insurance paid the medical bills.
Proceeds from a lawsuit helped finance her care in a nursing home.

Brain damage forces her to use a wheelchair and limits her upper body
movement to one arm and two fingers. It stole her memory and her
ability to talk to her husband and three sons.

"She'll ask about the boys, she'll ask about the cat," said her
husband, Jim Shank. "Whenever I'm there, she thinks it must be a
mealtime. We don't really hold a conversation."

Now the Shanks face a new obstacle. Her Wal-Mart health insurance plan
wants the lawsuit money to repay its costs.

Last week, the health plan sued Debbie Shank in federal court in St.
Louis, demanding the full $417,000 she got in the civil suit - PLUS at
least $51,000 more from the share that already went to lawyers and
costs


-----

Yang
a.a. #28
AthD (h.c.) conferred by the regents of the LCL
a.a. pastor #-273.15, the most frigid church of Celcius nee Kelvin
EAC Econometric Forecast and Sorcery Division
Proudly plonked by Lani Girl and Crazyalec (aka