ENROLLED HB 1139 2003 Legislature
   
1 A bill to be entitled
2          An act relating to Collier County; providing for liens in
3    favor of a nonprofit corporation operating a charitable
4    hospital within the county; authorizing such liens on
5    judgments and settlements recovered from a tortfeasor
6    causing a patient's injury for reasonable charges owed to
7    a hospital for services provided to an injured person;
8    providing limitations; providing for determination by the
9    court of amount of recovery when a patient and hospital
10    cannot agree on the actual amount; providing for reduction
11    of the lien by any payments to the hospital by or on
12    behalf of a patient; providing for notification to the
13    hospital of the patient's intent to claim damages from the
14    tortfeasor; requiring the hospital to state its intent to
15    assert its lien within a prescribed time; providing a
16    waiver of the right for failure to state such intent;
17    providing that payment to the hospital pursuant to this
18    act fully satisfies the patient’s hospital charges and
19    bill; requiring that the hospital provide a patient with
20    reasonably necessary information; providing an effective
21    date.
22         
23          Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
24         
25          Section 1. (1) Each nonprofit corporation operating a
26    hospital that qualifies as a charitable hospital under section
27    501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and that is located in
28    Collier County is entitled under this section to a lien, for all
29    reasonable hospital charges due and owing to the hospital for
30    medically necessary health care services provided to an injured
31    person, upon the proceeds of judgments and settlements recovered
32    from a tortfeasor who caused the injuries to the injured person
33    thus necessitating the health care services. As used in this
34    section, the term "patient" includes the legal representatives
35    of the injured person.
36          (2) The lien for all reasonable charges is limited to the
37    actual amount of all reasonable charges recovered by the patient
38    from a tortfeasor, less the hospital's pro rata share of costs
39    and attorney's fees incurred by the patient in recovering such
40    charges from the tortfeasor. In determining the hospital's pro
41    rata share of those costs and attorney's fees, the hospital must
42    have deducted from its recovery an amount equal to the
43    percentage of the judgment or settlement which is for costs and
44    attorney's fees.
45          (3) All reasonable charges must be calculated after
46    reduction for all amounts paid or at any time payable under any
47    third-party-payor contract or agreements between the hospital
48    and third-party payors or from any other private, public,
49    county, state, or federal insurance, contract, agreement,
50    benefit, program, or plan. If benefits are payable under
51    personal injury protection insurance as provided in chapter 627,
52    Florida Statutes, and the injured person has lost wages, 25
53    percent of the amount of the personal injury protection benefits
54    or the amount of lost wages, whichever is less, must be reserved
55    for paying the injured person's lost wages, and that amount
56    reserved for lost wages may not be used to pay reasonable
57    charges and is not subject to the lien created by this section.
58    All reasonable charges must be calculated after all adjustments,
59    reductions, and write-offs, in accordance with all third-party-
60    payor contracts and agreements between the hospital and third-
61    party payors, and in accordance with any other private, public,
62    county, state, or federal insurance contract, agreement,
63    benefit, program, or plan.
64          (4) If no amount is paid or at any time payable under any
65    third-party-payor contract or agreement between the hospital and
66    third-party payors, or from any other private, public, county,
67    state, or federal insurance, contract, agreement, benefit,
68    program, or plan, the amount of reasonable charges must be
69    determined under the third-party-payor contract or agreement
70    entered into between the hospital and a third-party payor which
71    provides for the lowest charges agreed to as acceptable by the
72    hospital, taking into account all reductions and write-offs
73    provided for in the third-party-payor contract or agreement in
74    effect at the time the charges were incurred.
75          (5) If the patient and hospital fail to agree on the
76    actual amount of the charges recovered from a tortfeasor, the
77    court in which the patient's claim against the tortfeasor was
78    filed, or, if never filed, the circuit court of the county in
79    which the cause of action arose, shall determine the actual
80    amount of the charges recovered from a tortfeasor. In
81    determining the actual amount of charges recovered,
82    consideration must be given to any offset in the amount of
83    settlement or judgment for any comparative negligence of the
84    patient, negligence of other tortfeasors, limitations in the
85    amount of liability insurance coverage available to the
86    tortfeasor, or any other mitigating factors determined equitable
87    and appropriate under the circumstances.
88          (6) The hospital lien recovery from the judgment or
89    settlement as calculated under this section must be reduced by
90    any payments to the hospital by the patient and by any payments
91    to the hospital by any other individual or entity making a
92    voluntary donation on behalf of the patient.
93          (7) A patient shall send the hospital, by certified or
94    registered mail, notification of his or her intent to claim
95    damages from the tortfeasor. If the claimant has filed suit
96    against the tortfeasor at the time such notice is sent, a copy
97    of the complaint against the tortfeasor shall be included with
98    the notice. The notice must include a statement that the
99    hospital waives any lien if it does not provide the patient or
100    patient's attorney with a statement asserting the lien and the
101    amount of all reasonable charges within 30 days following
102    receipt of the patient's notification to the hospital.
103          (8) Within 30 days after receipt of the patient's notice
104    of intent to claim damages from the tortfeasor, the hospital
105    must provide the patient or patient's attorney with a statement
106    asserting its lien. Failure of the hospital to provide this
107    statement to the patient or patient's attorney within the 30-day
108    period constitutes a waiver of any lien, and no lien exists if
109    the lien has been waived pursuant to this section.
110          (9) Payment to the hospital pursuant to this section fully
111    satisfies the patient's hospital charges and bill.
112          (10) A hospital shall cooperate with the patient and the
113    patient's attorney by producing at no charge to the patient all
114    reasonably necessary information to assist the patient in
115    proving his or her claim against the tortfeasor. Reasonably
116    necessary information includes, but is not limited to, hospital
117    bills and medical records.
118          Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2003, and
119    applies to all hospital charges incurred on or after that date.