Q:

Quick question, I'm in North Carolina and have a patient that was in an accident on I85 in 
Georgia.  What are the laws in Georgia regarding PI claims where the patient is seen under 
an assignment of benefits/lien.  This patient is dealing directly with the insurance carrier

A:

Thanks for your e-mail. In Georgia an attorney lien is worthless. An attorney is not 
obligated to honor it but if you have a good relationship with an honest one they probably 
will. As far as having a patient sign that the insurance carrier pay you directly with 
assignment of benefits this still stands. If the patient has what is called "Medpay" with their 
own auto carrier (this means that their personal auto insurance company will pay you 
directly regardless of who hit who .. this is the way to go if the patient has Medpay) since 
the third party or the carrier that hit the patient is under no obligation to pay you directly 
(with or without a lien or assignemnt of benefits as it does not stand since the third party is 
not contracted to the patient or you they will only settle at the end. The amount of settlement 
is out of your hands and the third party carrier may not even pay the funds directly to you 
but instead to the patient .. you then you hope they pay you. So check if the patient has 
Medpay .. call the carrier to be sure and if they do work with that and send claims as 
normal. If they say another carrier is guilty and they should pay (but the patient has 
Medpay) try to have them use the Medpay as you are almost assured of 100% payment 
with third party you are assured of nothing. The patients carrier will recover the money 
through subrugation or asking the offending insurance for money to recover their loss