Opinion ID: 2498680
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Amounts Paid Evidence is Inadmissible in this Case

Text: ¶ 25 Evidence of the $40,000 paid by Crossgrove's insurance provider is inadmissible under the controlling pre-verdict evidentiary component of the collateral source rule because it is evidence of a collateral source benefit. A plaintiff's insurer is a collateral source because it is a third party wholly independent of the tortfeasor to which the tortfeasor has not contributed. Van Waters, 840 P.2d at 1074 (quoting Kistler, 173 Colo. at 545, 481 P.2d at 724). The $40,000 paid in satisfaction of Crossgrove's medical bills is a collateral source benefit because it is an amount paid to a healthcare provider by a collateral source on an insured plaintiff's behalf. Thus, the pre-verdict evidentiary component of the collateral source doctrine requires the exclusion of the amounts paid evidence. See Gardenswartz, 242 P.3d at 1083-84. As such, the court of appeals properly reversed the trial court's order admitting evidence of the $40,000 paid by Crossgrove's insurer.