Dear Sailmaker510,
I do agree with you about your posting but I do want to point out something I think I need to clear up. You said "Right now a million dollars may look good - but 5 yrs down the road you may ask why did I do that. The ploy of the insureace company is to be your friend and put a big dollar sign in front of you and say sign on the dotted line." I don't believe the ploy of the ins co is to be your friend. They may think so but they have many different ways to make you change your mind. You say the money may look good now but but 5 years down the line ---...The ins co may be out of business or merged with another co by then and you could be cutoff OR what happens in case the patient dies by some random thing (I know I hate to think this way too) then will his/her suvivors get any money or will it just be cut off since the patient died?

If this is a workers comp settlement social security treats the money received as income and spreads it out over the years. You could wind up not getting a dime of SS money for several years as a result of the settlement. Maybe you could specify what is for transportation, PT, etc. before the settlement this way soc sec doesn't include it all as income. I know there are so many ways of looking at this and your ideas are correct. What has been happening to me is that the workers comp doesn't want to pay for me to get my Ketamine treatment so they are constantly filing court docs to go before a judge to keep me from getting them and it goes on and on for years. This is the way they stop your treatments. They want you to get so annoyed and frustrated you just give up. If you settle monetarily make sure you don't settle your health benefits. This way you can continue to get benefits even if you have to fight for them. Hopefully, Pres Obama will cutout disqualifying us for ins because of preexisting conditions. It will be interesting to see what happens. THanks for your email.
kathy d

One thing I advise very strongly before you settle is to make sure you have what is called an "open file" which is what the wc company has to pay for the rest of your life. That is what they would have to cover pertaining to your rsd whether it be docs visits, surgery, meds. etc. That is the biggest thing with me because it does get rather expensive. I have been fighting since 2003, settled out once, then wc renigged on what we settled on so we are now fighting again. If you don't have health ins. you will probably have a very difficult time getting it. I was denied 3 times in 1 summer because of my rsd. So please try to make sure to settle at least with an "open file". It will be one of the best things you will have done. Take care and good luck.

Sincerely,
Tracy

Hurt in FL at work, 2 knee surgeries later, RSd/CRPSII , then systemic CRPS II. The value of an entire leg being amputated in FL is $25,000. They do not have lifetime medical and to top it off..my company went under the FEDERAL BANKRUPTCY ACT protection. My choices were 1) wait 4-5 yrs to see if any monies were available after all other debtors were pd or 2) take a settlement. Since was living in FL alone with no help and wanted to move home to GA for $assistance, mobility assistance, yadda, yadda...I tk the crappy amount of 50,000 leaving me with 37,000...30,000 for medical. THAT ran out on less than 9 months. With the loans from family and agencies I finally made it to the finish line....2 denials for SSDI, then with an atty won in may this yr. Still have not seen a lump sum....THEY ARE WORKING ON IT. I think they are trying to stretch out my med amount of 30,000 out as a monthly income but my atty says the ARE CRAZY AND CANNOT DO THIS. What is your status?

You received a favorable SSDI judgement and to this day you've not received your retro pay? If so, this is borderline criminal.

JK....the amount of SSDI backpay is offset by WC when combined they would equal over 80% of your pre injury income.

It sounds like in BD's case it will come down to how the WC settlement was written. I don't think it's fair to count medical payments/compensation against SSDI backpay, but if the settlement was written just as a final settlement/payment maybe SSDI could justify not 'double paying' for that period. I hope it works out for you BD

That's not exactly correct. With a good life-care planner who researched future medical and an economic expert who runs the numbers and it can be determined fairly accurately.

I'm not familiar with WC claims, but through a car accident causing CRPS I know a friend settled for more than $500,000. That was even without going to court. Insurance didnt fight it.

No fault won that case... Im on comp.. and they have offered me 4 different settlements .I refused them all.. I will not settle.. this beast seems to be here to stay. i will need them to cover treatments for many years to come until one sticks.. and then even if it does stick it might come back.. nope I won't settle ..especially for 14 grand when in the last year they have spent over 400 grand on medical alone.. they know the real worth .. and they are insulting my intelligence . and they will do the same to all that do not know the worth of medical they will need in the future.....

I've always wondered why the heck this is even allowed. Anyone with a serious injury taking a lump sum generally won't receive a fraction of what is really needed to cover their medical care. It seems to encourage fraud... Or shift the monetary burden to tax payers...

Don't get me wrong, WC is generally miserable to deal with, so I can understand wanting to get them out of one's life.

Attorneys also encourage their clients to settle for a lump sum so that they end up getting a % of the medical (unless of course the injured worker is in a state with max attorney fees.)

Every doc I've ever spoken with has said it's foolish to settle out medical with WC, yet most of their patients seem to make that choice. I decided early on that the only thing I could worry about was keeping my medical open, which resulted in me being without out a dime of income for a long stretch at one point--without the help of family I would have ended up homeless...

Just to add my 2 cents...when it comes to settlements it really is different in every single case. I did not want to settle and initially did not. We went to trial, won, and I had open medical. Then things got worse and I couldn't reopen the case and take advantage of open medical because work comp was appealing. So there I was, in limbo, getting worse daily, and forced to use my regular insurance because work comp would not approve anything. Bad situation made worse (in my opinion) by an awful lawyer who was in way over his head and then turned nasty on me (and yes...this is MY lawyer I am talking about). No other lawyer would touch it because we had already gone to trial.

So after a year...I finally took a settlement. Work comp was against me, MY lawyer was bullying me and being mean trying to FORCE me to take a settlement, no one else would touch the case, I was getting no income, and had to pay for all my own medical. So once I was released back to work I made the decision to settle because I needed to get out from under all this stress which was only making me worse. I feel like work comp won on this one because they were able to force a situation where I felt like I had no choice but to either settle or go bankrupt, lose my job, and have to wait another 5 years before the appeals and all that were done (all while being harassed and bullied by work comp, my lawyer, and dealing with the stresses of having no money and no way to keep paying for insurance).

Did my settlement even cover a fraction of the medical I will continue to need in the future? Heck no...it didn't even cover the medical paid out of pocket last year while they were messing around. But it's OVER. I struggled with the decision for a long time...but I honestly feel like the decision I made was in my best interest long term for my physical and mental health.

If the situation had been different (different lawyer mostly) then I never would have settled. I don't regret my decision because it was the best I could make of a bad situation...but I do wish things had been different. Unfortunately the system is just so corrupt and sometimes you just have to make the best of it. But I am very proud of my decision to refuse their offer to resign my job for more money. That just plain insulted me and it is terrible that in MOST cases they get people to agree to this. They pushed that hard on me but I absolutely refused.

I agree with you LitLove that the fact that insurance companies can offer lump sum settlements does encourage fraud. It sucks too because the only ones who really benefit from the current system the way it's set up are the ones who are exaggerating or faking injuries because the settlements are not nearly enough to take care of those who legitimately need the money for medical costs and are too much for those who won't really have any future medical costs. So frustrating.

But I do realize that my situation is also unique because I have been able to return to work and therefore have insurance and income to help me pay my future medical bills. This is not the case for many with RSD who end up losing their jobs, friends, family, etc because of the condition.

There are situations where settling may be the best situation for someone, though, since this is not a perfect world and we are surrounded by corruption and those who are willing to hurt us for the bottom line. Sad...but true. The work comp system needs to be majorly overhauled...but I just don't know how you make it better and free from the corruption that currently causes it to be so bad. And the corruption is on both sides because I realize that as much as work comp sucks and take advantage...there are just as many employees who work the system too.