Marina Karvelas was quoted in a July 18, 2013, article published by Claims Journal, Could Medpay Be The Latest Target In California Bad Faith Claims, about a recent appeals court decision in California dealing with bad faith claims related to medical payments coverage.

The case, Justin Barnes v. Western Heritage Insurance Company, involved a plaintiff who was injured at 11 years old when a table fell on his back during a recreational program. A superior court found that the plaintiff could not sue the recreational program provider's insurance for bad faith for denying him coverage in part because the plaintiff had already settled a suit against the program provider. The appeals court reversed the trial court's decision.

Karvelas told the Claims Journal that she thought the decision could increase bad faith claims relating to medical payments coverage if the decision survives scrutiny by the California Supreme Court.

The Barnes decision muddies the waters on the collateral source rule which up until this decision was fairly clear in California,” she said. “An insurance policy taken out and maintained by the alleged wrongdoer, including its medpay provisions, is not wholly independent of him/her and thus cannot be considered to be a collateral source.

“Stated simply, the injured plaintiff cannot recover against the tortfeasor under the liability provisions of the tortfeasor’s insurance policy and then sue the insurance company under the medpay provision of that same policy. The Barnes court concluded differently. The medpay provision in a tortfeasor’s liability policy can be construed as a collateral source. As a third party beneficiary of the medpay provisions, all the injured plaintiff has to do is allege the insurance company committed a wrongful act against him/her when handling the medpay claim. In Barnes, Western Heritage allegedly failed to notify the injured plaintiff of the one-year time limit to present medpay claims. The alleged failure violated California’s regulations governing the fair settlement of claims,” Karvelas said. “The Barnes decision is problematic for insurers not only with respect to the collateral source rule but reflects an ever increasing effort by California’s plaintiff’s bar to create private rights of action for violation of the fair claims settlement regulations.”

Karvelas also told the publication that policy changes to medical payments coverage may be looming.

“It may behoove insurers to add provisions to their liability policies that the Barnes court found were missing in the policy at issue. These would include provisions that reflect an intent that payment under the liability provisions of the policy extinguishes the insurer’s obligation under the medpay provisions of that same policy,” Karvelas said.