Tip #269 - How to Exclude Outstanding Medical Bill Amounts From The Settlement Calculations

When a settlement is entered, SmartAdvocate will do a general calculation and display the net to client. The Settlement Page - accessed by going to “Negotiation/Settlement,” will take the following information into consideration when doing the calculations:

MedPay

Case Expenses (Case Costs or Disbursements)

Interest on Case Expenses (Case Costs)

Prior Attorney Expense

Referral Fees

Co-Counsel Fees

Other Case Costs

Firm Fees (Attorney Fees)

Liens

Outstanding Medical Bills

Taxes (Sales Taxes on Attorney’s Fees – charged in some jurisdictions)

Common Benefit Funds Fees (Mass Tort Cases)

Common Benefit Fund Attorney’s Fees (Mass Tort Cases)

In general, the system will automatically take all these items into account when doing the calculations. However, the system can be configured to exclude certain items or only include an item if the matter is of a specific type (e.g., Common Benefit Fund Fees or Interest on Case Expense calculations).

Outstanding Medical Bills will be included in the settlement calculations automatically (there is no system wide setting to exclude those).

Occasionally, however, you may want to have medical bills excluded from your settlement calculations. To do so, you will need to “flag” each provider individually and mark the entry “Don’t Pay at Settlement”.

Here’s How:

1. On the Medical Provider Page, open the entry (edit the provider) for the provider you want to work with

2. On the “Add/Edit Medical Provider” Page check the box for “Don’t Pay at Settlement”

3. Save the entry

The outstanding balance for that Provider will now be excluded from the settlement calculations.