Resolving Medical Liens and Reimbursement Claims in Personal Injury Cases: Achieving Predictability and Finality

Professor Emeritus Roger Baron, University of South Dakota School of Law, has authored numerous articles on Subrogation and ERISA Reimbursement issues. Mr. Baron’s Mercer Law Review article on ERISA reimbursement has been cited by three federal district courts in written opinions handed down in Illinois, New Jersey, and Washington. One of his earlier articles on subrogation was cited by the U.S. District Court of Nebraska (Judge Urbom) in a 2003 decision denying subrogation. More recently, the Supreme Court of Hawaii (2017) cited and relied upon one of his articles in denying the efforts by health insurers to undermine Hawaii’s protective legislation.  


Mr. Baron has also been actively involved in ERISA reimbursement litigation, representing clients and lawyers in state and federal courts across the country. He has participated in three U.S. Supreme Court proceedings -- he co-authored an amicus brief filed in the Supreme Court in McCutchen v. U.S. Airways, filed on behalf of several trial lawyer organizations; he was part of the small team of lawyers who represented Joel and Marlene Sereboff in the 2006 U.S. Supreme Court Sereboff case; and he worked with the lawyers representing Deborah and James Shank in their case involving Wal-Mart in 2008-09. Although the Supreme Court denied the Shank’s Petition for Writ of Cert, the public outcry caused Wal-Mart to re-evaluate its policy.  Upon re-evaluation, Wal-Mart permitted the Shanks to retain all of their settlement recovery and also change its plan document for the handling of future reimbursement cases.  

Mr. Place exclusively assists personal injury victims and plaintiff counsel with complex lien resolution problems using his vast knowledge of the other side’s techniques. Mr. Place spent fourteen years representing large private group health insurance plans, self-funded ERISA groups, FEHBA plans, Medicare Advantage plans, state Medicaid plans, as well as stop-loss and disability plans in their subrogation/recovery programs. He asserted subrogation/reimbursement rights for those groups in all fifty states, personally recovering nearly one hundred million dollars for the insurance industry.