Subrogation is the substitution of one person in the place of another with reference to a claim, demand or right.

Health insurance will pay your medical bills regardless of how you were injured.  There are times when your health insurance company will pay medical bills for you that were for injuries caused by another person.    As an example;  you were driving through a green light when someone traveling the other direction, ran their red light and crashed into your car.  You were injured and taken to the hospital in an ambulance and your health insurance paid for the ambulance and hospital bills.

Shortly after the hospital visit, you might receive a questionnaire from your health insurance company that is asking questions about your injuries to determine if there is someone else that is responsible for paying for your injuries such as the person who ran the red light.

When your health insurance gets the details of the responsible party, the person who ran the red light, your health insurance company would then claim to have a subrogation right to have the amount of money they paid to medical providers on your behalf and ask that they are reimbursed from the settlement or judgement you get from the person who ran the red light.

Subrogation is not allowed in Missouri UNLESS the health insurance company has made an ERISA subrogation claim or you have contractually agreed to reimburse your health insurance in your specific contract with that insurer.

Occasionally a health insurance company would claim that they have the right of subrogation and ask that they receive reimbursement when they are not legally entitled to receive this reimbursement.

There are other types of subrogation that could affect a personal injury claim such as uninsured motorist coverage and more.

Subrogation is very confusing and RS Law will carefully review all subrogation requests and make sure they are valid while processing your personal injury claim.

Missouri is the only state that has a five year statute of limitations for making a subrogation claim.