In the past few years, half the work and hassle in representing individuals in personal injury claims is the endless hassle with medical lien claims.

Medicare, which asserts claims under the Medicare Secondary Payer Act, is often the hardest to deal with because the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) bureaucracy is infamously slow and difficult to deal with, and will never tell us the amount they demand before we settle a case with the other side.

I had one case in my office in which it took 18 months after the case settled, writing to them about every…