Subrogation is a term that's understood in legal and insurance circles but sometimes not by the policyholders they represent. Even if you've never heard the word before, it would be in your benefit to know the nuances of how it works. The more knowledgeable you are, the more likely it is that relevant proceedings will work out in your favor.
Every insurance policy you have is a commitment that, if something bad happens to you, the company that insures the policy will make good in a timely manner. If your house suffers fire damage, for instance, your property insurance steps in to pay you or enable the repairs, subject to state property damage laws.
But since figuring out who is financially responsible for services or repairs is regularly a time-consuming affair – and delay often increases the damage to the victim – insurance companies usually decide to pay up front and figure out the blame later. They then need a method to recover the costs if, when there is time to look at all the facts, they weren't responsible for the expense.
For Example
You go to the Instacare with a gouged finger. You hand the receptionist your health insurance card and she takes down your coverage details. You get stitched up and your insurance company gets an invoice for the tab. But the next day, when you clock in at your workplace – where the injury happened – your boss hands you workers compensation forms to file. Your workers comp policy is in fact responsible for the bill, not your health insurance policy. It has a vested interest in getting that money back somehow.
How Does Subrogation Work?
This is where subrogation comes in. It is the way that an insurance company uses to claim reimbursement when it pays out a claim that turned out not to be its responsibility. Some companies have in-house property damage lawyers and personal injury attorneys, or a department dedicated to subrogation; others contract with a law firm. Usually, only you can sue for damages done to your self or property. But under subrogation law, your insurance company is given some of your rights for making good on the damages. It can go after the money originally due to you, because it has covered the amount already.
How Does This Affect Me?
For starters, if you have a deductible, it wasn't just your insurance company who had to pay. In a $10,000 accident with a $1,000 deductible, you lost some money too – to the tune of $1,000. If your insurer is unconcerned with pursuing subrogation even when it is entitled, it might opt to recover its losses by boosting your premiums. On the other hand, if it knows which cases it is owed and pursues those cases efficiently, it is acting both in its own interests and in yours. If all $10,000 is recovered, you will get your full thousand-dollar deductible back. If it recovers half (for instance, in a case where you are found one-half culpable), you'll typically get half your deductible back, based on the laws in most states.
Additionally, if the total loss of an accident is over your maximum coverage amount, you could be in for a stiff bill. If your insurance company or its property damage lawyers, such as workers compensation Paddock Lake, WI, successfully press a subrogation case, it will recover your expenses in addition to its own.
All insurance agencies are not created equal. When shopping around, it's worth comparing the records of competing companies to evaluate if they pursue legitimate subrogation claims; if they do so quickly; if they keep their clients informed as the case proceeds; and if they then process successfully won reimbursements immediately so that you can get your funding back and move on with your life. If, instead, an insurance agency has a reputation of honoring claims that aren't its responsibility and then safeguarding its income by raising your premiums, even attractive rates won't outweigh the eventual headache.