TRENTON, N.J. (Legal Newsline) – A New Jersey law firm and a Florida resident are seeking a declaration regarding a lien from several federal agencies to assist her in a lawsuit over injuries she sustained in an auto accident.
Lomurro, Munson, Comer, Brown & Schottland LLC and Margaret August filed a complaint on Nov. 5 in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey against United States of America, Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services seeking declaratory judgment.
According to the complaint, August was injured in an auto accident in 2013 in New Jersey and filed a lawsuit against multiple defendants in New Jersey Superior Court. The defendants included the law firm Heagan, Pagano and Seems, who had represented August but allegedly failed to advise her regarding New Jersey Property-Liability Insurance Guaranty Association benefits regarding her accident-related medical bills.
"As a result, Medicare paid part of plaintiff's medical bills and has a statutory right to repayment of those bills," the suit states.
The suit states August has not settled with Heagan, Pagano and Seems and contacted the defendants regarding a lien. The defendants allegedly told her there wasn't a lien and no conditional payments. She alleges that because there are no conditional payments, she cannot seek administrative review. She alleges she advised the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in March, July and August that the defendants erred in "issuing statements demonstrating zero conditional payments by providing proof of bills that appeared to be paid by Medicare" regarding the accident.
She alleges that because she does not have proof of Medicare's conditional payments, she cannot settle or proceed to trial against Heagan, Pagano and Seems.
The plaintiffs seek declaration of Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services lien rights and issuance of an order declaring the amount of conditional payments made by defendants on plaintiff's behalf. They are represented by Thomas M. Comer and Christina Vassiliou Harvey of Lomurro, Munson, Comer, Brown & Schottland LLC in Freehold, New Jersey.
U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey case number 3:18-cv-15664-FLW-DEA