No - the worst case is that Medicare gets paid back out of your settlement, not that your claim disappears.

That surprises a lot of people, especially retirees on Medicare and Social Security who assume, "If Medicare paid the bills, there's nothing left for me." In Connecticut, that is flatly wrong.

What can happen in the worst case is this: Medicare makes conditional payments for your treatment, then seeks reimbursement if you recover money from the person or company that caused the injury. So if a driver clips you on Whalley Avenue, Route 34, or near the I-95 New Haven exits during bike or motorcycle season, Medicare may pay first, but it can later demand repayment from the settlement.

That is not the same thing as having no case.

You can still seek compensation for things Medicare does not erase, including:

• Pain and suffering
• Future treatment
• Out-of-pocket costs
• Lost income or lost ability to work
• Other damages tied to the injury

Connecticut also has no cap on non-economic damages in ordinary personal injury and auto cases, so pain-and-suffering damages are not automatically limited by state law.

The timing matters. In most Connecticut injury cases, the lawsuit deadline is 2 years from the injury date, under Conn. Gen. Stat. § 52-584. Wait too long, and the claim can be lost even if Medicare paid every bill.

If the injury happened in New Haven, useful records often include the New Haven Police Department crash report, ambulance records from Yale New Haven Hospital, and billing records showing what Medicare paid versus what you still owe. Those records matter because insurers love the "Medicare covered it, so this is minor" argument. It often is not.

So the myth is expensive: Medicare paying first does not bar a Connecticut injury claim.