Employers far and wide struggle with a very important decision; when offering a health benefit plan to its employees, should the plan engage in subrogation and reimbursement activities? Why would a plan/employer want to do, or not do, such a thing? Don't subrogation and reimbursement negatively impact the very plan participants the plan is designed to benefit? Perhaps of even more concern, will employees of the company view this as the employer taking money from the employees? Or is there some bigger force at play that would encourage, perhaps even require, that a benefit plan engage in subrogation and reimbursement?

Wait… what the heck is subrogation and reimbursement, anyway?

Subrogation

In a nutshell, subrogation and reimbursement are methods utilized by benefit plans to recover money against parties who may have caused, or in some way be responsible for, an injury or loss that resulted in payment by the benefit plan on behalf of a plan beneficiary. Subrogation and reimbursement, while inextricably related, operate in different, very important ways.