Under Georgia law, specifically O.C.G.A. §33-24-56.1, certain insurance policies only permit an insurance company to recover money spent on your medical bills if you have been “made whole.” This means that the compensation you receive from your claim must exceed the total of your damages, encompassing both economic (medical expenses, lost wages) and non-economic (pain and suffering) losses stemming from the accident. You are considered “whole” only when you’ve been compensated for all your losses. If you don’t recover the full extent of your damages, the insurance company is unlikely to recover what it paid for the claim.
The rationale behind this law is that in situations where either the insurer or the insured may have to bear unpaid expenses, the loss should fall on the insurer because they’ve already received a premium for assuming this risk. Furthermore, the insurance company would have been obliged to cover the insured’s medical expenses regardless of whether the insured was negligent or if a third party was found liable for the accident.