A medical lien is essentially an agreement that your medical care providers will delay their demands for you to pay in full until you receive your settlement. More specifically, a “lien” legally defines a relationship where a debtor is obligated to share their settlement with a part who holds interest. “Interest” in this case doesn’t refer to a percentage fee charge on a debt but rather refers to whether or not a party has stakes in a settlement outcome.
Put another way: a medical lien is an arrangement where instead of providing payment through cash or insurance, you instead agree to share your settlement.
Agreeing to a lien is entirely at the discretion of your healthcare services providers. Many providers have a strict policy against agreeing to liens of any sort. Others will evaluate their willingness to enter a lien on a case-by-case basis. In these situations, they may not listen to an injury victim at all but instead will want to speak to a trustworthy truck accident lawyer representing the victim.
A truck accident attorney can assure medical care providers of the strength of the injury claim and provide an estimate for when a settlement or court award is likely to be released. The provider at their own discretion can then decide whether or not to provide a lien for the amount of services already rendered.
In these situations, some care providers may agree to a lien while others won’t. An accident injury victim without insurance or medical savings may therefore end up having collection action taken by some of their care providers but not others.
Note that a medical lien does not absolve someone of their medical debt if they lose a case.