Lien Resolution
A settlement isn't what the check says, it's what you keep after the liens are paid. Hospitals, health insurers, Medicare, and Medicaid all line up to be reimbursed from your recovery. We negotiate those liens down at the end of a case so more of the settlement reaches you.
Talk to an attorneyFounded
1965
Attorneys
11
AV-rated
Martindale-Hubbell
Office
Bellevue, WA
Founded
1965
Attorneys
4
AV-rated
Martindale-Hubbell
Office
Bellevue, WA
Lien resolution attorneys for Bellevue and Seattle injury clients
Oseran Hahn resolves the liens that stand between a settlement and the money our clients actually take home. After an injury recovery, medical providers, hospitals, health plans, Medicare, and Medicaid often claim repayment, and left unmanaged those liens can consume most of a settlement. We identify every lien, test whether it's valid and how far it really reaches, and negotiate it down using the made-whole rule, the common-fund doctrine, and the federal limits that cap what some of them can take. The point is your net, not the gross. The first conversation is free.
Lien resolution is the last and most overlooked part of an injury case, and it decides how much of the recovery you keep. We find and validate every lien against the settlement; we handle hospital and medical-provider liens under Washington's lien statute; we take on health-insurance and ERISA-plan reimbursement claims on their own terms; we resolve Medicare and Medicaid interests under the federal rules that govern them; and we negotiate each lien down before a dollar is disbursed.
Why liens decide your net recovery
The number a case settles for and the money you take home are rarely the same. Anyone who paid for your treatment, a hospital, a health insurer, Medicare, Medicaid, or L&I, may have a right to be reimbursed from the recovery, and if those claims aren't managed they can eat most of a settlement. Every lien has its own rules, and many can be reduced or defeated. We treat lien resolution as part of winning the case, not an afterthought, because the net is what matters to you.
Hospital and medical-provider liens
Under Washington's lien statute, RCW 60.44, a hospital and certain providers can record a lien against your injury recovery for the reasonable value of care. Those liens are real, but they are also negotiable, and they are subject to limits and defenses, including reductions for the attorney fees that created the fund. The common-fund principle recognized in Mahler v. Szucs, 135 Wn.2d 398 (1998), requires a lienholder benefiting from your recovery to share in the cost of obtaining it. We hold providers to that.
Health-insurance and ERISA liens
Your health insurer often wants reimbursement too, and the rules turn on what kind of plan it is. For an insured plan, Washington's made-whole rule from Thiringer v. American Mutual Insurance Co., 91 Wn.2d 215 (1978), can bar reimbursement until you are fully compensated. A self-funded ERISA plan is different: under US Airways v. McCutchen, 569 U.S. 88 (2013), the written plan terms control, and equitable defenses apply only where the plan is silent. But under Montanile v. Board of Trustees, 577 U.S. 136 (2016), an ERISA plan's claim attaches only to an identifiable settlement fund, which creates real room to negotiate.
Medicare and Medicaid
Government payers have their own regimes. Medicare must be reimbursed for conditional payments under the Medicare Secondary Payer Act, 42 U.S.C. 1395y, and future treatment may require a set-aside; ignoring Medicare's interest can stall a settlement. Medicaid can recover too, but only within limits: Arkansas Department of Health and Human Services v. Ahlborn, 547 U.S. 268 (2006), confines its recovery to the medical-expense portion of a settlement, and Gallardo v. Marstiller, 596 U.S. 419 (2022), extends that to past and future medical portions. We work those allocations to keep the government's share to what the law actually allows.
Negotiating the liens down before disbursement
A lien's first number is rarely its last. We reduce them for the attorney fees and costs that created the recovery, for comparative fault, for made-whole shortfalls, and for hardship, and we document the basis so the reduction holds. All of it happens before the settlement is disbursed, because once the money is paid out the leverage is gone. The goal is straightforward: the largest possible share of the recovery in your hands, not the lienholders'.
Insurers keep track of which firms prepare a file like it's headed to a jury and which ones take the first offer. We're in the first group, and it changes what your claim is worth.
You pay nothing unless we recover.
We handle injury cases on a contingency fee. The consultation is free, we advance the costs of building the case, and our fee comes out of the recovery, not your pocket. If there's no recovery, you owe no attorney fee.
Built for trial, which is why most settle.
Every file is prepared as if a jury will see it: evidence preserved, experts lined up, damages documented. That preparation is exactly why the other side settles, and settles higher. The firm's trial group has been in Washington courtrooms for decades.
Senior attorneys, straight talk.
You work with experienced attorneys, not a rotating case manager, and you'll get an honest read on your claim, including when a case isn't worth bringing. Communication is steady and in plain language, so you always know where things stand.
The attorneys behindthe work.
Our business and corporate attorneys handle this work alongside our litigation team, so you have coverage whether your matter stays transactional or becomes something more.
What clientsask us first.
What is a lien on my settlement?
A lien is a repayment claim against your settlement by someone who paid for your injury treatment, usually a hospital, your health insurer, Medicare, Medicaid, or L&I. Washington's hospital-lien statute, RCW 60.44, is one example. Left unmanaged, these claims can take a large share of the recovery, which is why resolving them is part of the case.
Do I have to pay back my health insurance, and can liens be reduced?
Often, yes to both. For an insured health plan, Washington's made-whole rule can limit or bar reimbursement until you're fully compensated, and the common-fund doctrine makes lienholders share the attorney fees that created the recovery. A self-funded ERISA plan follows its own written terms, but even those claims attach only to an identifiable fund, which leaves room to negotiate.
What about Medicare and Medicaid?
They have to be handled, not ignored. Medicare must be reimbursed for what it paid under the Medicare Secondary Payer Act, and future care may need a set-aside. Medicaid can recover, but Ahlborn and Gallardo limit it to the medical-expense portion of the settlement. We address both so they don't hold up or shrink your recovery more than the law requires.
What does it cost?
It's part of the representation. We handle lien resolution as part of the same contingency fee on your injury case, with no separate charge. Reducing the liens is one of the most direct ways we increase what you actually take home, so it's work we do on every case that has them.
Why does lien resolution matter so much?
Because the headline settlement and your take-home are different numbers, and the liens are the difference. A case can settle for a strong figure and still leave little behind if the liens aren't fought. Resolving them well is often worth as much to a client as a higher gross settlement would be.
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Tell us about your case and the bills against it. The consultation is free, and an attorney from our personal-injury group will follow up within one business day.
Oseran Hahn P.S. · 11225 SE 6th St, Suite 100 · Bellevue, WA 98004
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