SB 15-265 Summary

• Hospitals must submit all reasonable and necessary charges for hospital care to property and casualty insurers and primary medical payers before creating a lien on a patient's settlement.

• A hospital lien may only be created if no payers of benefits are identified for the injured person due to lack of insurance.

• If a hospital is notified of a payer of benefits after creating a lien, the hospital must make good-faith attempts to submit charges to the identified payer.

• An injured person subject to a lien in violation of this section may bring an action in district court to recover two times the amount of the lien attempted to be asserted.

• Defines "payer of benefits" to include insurers, health maintenance organizations, health benefit plans, employee benefit plans, medical assistance programs, and other insurance policies or plans available to the injured person.