Xarelto Settlement & Disbursement Process FAQ

Congratulations! You have received an offer to settle your Xarelto case. What are your next steps? We have compiled a list of frequently asked questions and answers to provide you with information quickly.

If you have specific questions regarding your case, please contact our office at (212) 566-7500 for further assistance.

I intend to accept my offer. What happens next?

In order to participate in the settlement program, each claimant must return his/her Enrollment Election Form and a Release that has been properly signed and notarized to our office.

How will my settlement value be determined?

Each claimant who submits their settlement documents will have their submission evaluated by a Claims Administrator. The Claims Administrators are responsible for reviewing all of your relevant medical records, applying the criteria described in the letter you received with your settlement documents, and assigning a point value to your claim.

If you disagree with the categorization of your case as indicated in the letter you received from our office, please contact us immediately at (212) 566-7500.

After all of the total points have been allocated to each eligible claim, the Claims Administrators will take the total number of points and divide that into the total amount of the settlement to determine the value of each point. This value will then be multiplied by the total number of points you have been awarded to arrive at your settlement award.

What is lien verification and resolution? What is a holdback? Who is Archer?

By law, insurance companies that paid for coverage for an injury that is being compensated by a personal injury settlement may have a right to reimbursement of some of what they paid. This right is called “subrogation”. Archer has been contracted to perform the process of: verifying whether you the claimant have any legal obligations  to any insurers; auditing claims if any are asserted for maximum reduction of the lien amount; and resolving the  matter by arriving at a final lien (if indeed a legitimate right to recovery exists) which is then repaid to the insurer directly from your award.

The insurers with the right to first recovery are the public government agencies – Medicaid, Medicare, Tricare, or any other affiliated plans/programs. These are the very first things that must be checked, so if you have ever been a recipient of any government benefits, your process will likely take longer than someone who has never been a recipient. Unfortunately, the federal government moves at its own pace, and there is very little that can be done to speed the process along. Defendants is within its legal right to withhold your funds until they get clearance from Medicaid/Medicare/Tricare etc., and from what we have seen, they are exercising this right.

After the matter of public insurer(s) has been resolved, Archer then turns to the verification of any private insurer(s) and their potential interests in the matter. Because you enrolled in the Private Lien Resolution Program (“PLRP”) you will automatically be checked against all participating plans – please refer to the attached list. You will also be checked against any and all other plans indicated on the PLRP documentation you returned – please also refer to the attached copy of your returned paperwork.

PLEASE NOTE: Failure to provide a complete list of insurers that have covered you at any time since your injury up through present day will likely result in delays and could potentially result in additional fees pursuant to  the

true status of your reimbursement obligations. Similarly, if you returned your PLRP documents with a signature but did not provide any insurance information, your process will be gravely delayed. You can add information at any time – please simply let us know and we will process it ASAP.

Be reminded that you have previously received correspondence and information about liens, holdbacks, and the PLRP, so if it helps you can reference any of the previous paperwork sent to you about these matters. However, we understand and appreciate that these may not necessarily be familiar topics – so if you have any questions at all about liens/holdbacks/PLRP or any other topic, please do not hesitate to call our office and ask to speak to one of our Xarelto team members.

How much money will I receive from my settlement award?

There is no way for us to say how much you will ultimately receive from your settlement award until the lien resolution process is complete.

When will I receive my settlement funds?

The process of disbursement is no overnight matter – just like the phases of litigation, discovery, or negotiations, disbursement can take quite some time. Due to the number of claimants in this settlement, we anticipate that final settlement values will not be determined until early 2020 following the completion all deadlines, extensions and appeals. Once final settlement values are set, lien verification and resolution takes a different amount of time pursuant to each individual’s unique situation, so it is currently impossible to say exactly how long your process will take.

The bottom line is that the Claims Administrators are the entity that ultimately authorizes disbursement based on information provided by Archer – so unless and until they get the documentation necessary to satisfy their requirements and assure themselves that you have met all your legal obligations, they will not authorize disbursement, and we will be unable to process any on your behalf.

Please understand and rest assured that an entire team of professionals here at Douglas & London works on nothing but disbursement, and all of us are committed to getting you paid as much and as quickly as possible. That being said, a large part of this process is out of our hands and there is very little we are able to do to make it go any faster. Simply put, it takes time and we must abide by the law and by the protocol in place for this settlement.

As soon as we are cleared to disburse funds to you, we will ALWAYS do so immediately. We will also ALWAYS contact you before any payment is made to ensure proper delivery of your check.

What can I do?

At this time, the only thing for you to do is wait. DO NOT CONTACT ANY OF YOUR INSURERS. Any inquiry with them will open a separate file in their system which will be a duplicate of the file ARCHER’s inquiry opened. The Claims Administrators will then require double the documentation to assure themselves that each inquiry has been properly closed out. Any attempt you make at resolving your own lien(s) will only delay and complicate the process.

Again, rest assured that as soon as we are cleared to disburse any funds, we will ALWAYS do so immediately!

Thank you for your patience and we hope to have news for you soon.