If a benefit payment is made by the Plan, to you or on your behalf, which exceeds the benefit amount that you are entitled to receive (an "Overpayment"), the Plan has the right to be repaid. The Plan has the right to reduce by the amount of the Overpayment, any future benefit payment made to you or your dependents. The Plan may also recover Overpayments by reducing future payments to a provider by the amount of the Overpayment under a process referred to as a "cross-plan offset." These future payments may involve this Plan or other health plans that are administered by the Plan's third-party administrator(s) ("TPA"). Under this process, the TPA reduces future payments to providers by the amount of the Overpayments they received, and then credits the recovered amount to the plan that made the overpayment.

This section applies when a covered person recovers damages — by settlement, verdict or otherwise — for an injury, sickness or other condition. If the covered person has made — or in the future may make — such a recovery, including a recovery from an insurance carrier, the Plan will not cover either the reasonable value of the services to treat such an injury or illness or the treatment of such an injury or illness.

However, if the Plan does pay for or provide benefits for such an injury, sickness or other condition, the covered person — or the legal representatives, estate or heirs of the covered person — will promptly reimburse the Plan from all recovery amounts (whether or not characterized as related to medical expenses) from any settlement, verdict or insurance proceeds received by the covered person (or by the legal representatives, estate or heirs of the covered person) to the extent that medical benefits have been paid for or provided by the Plan to the covered person.

If the covered person receives payment from a third party or his or her insurance company as a result of an injury or harm due to the conduct of another party, and the covered person has received benefits from the Plan, the Plan must be reimbursed first. In other words, the covered person's recovery from a third party may not compensate the covered person fully for all the financial expenses incurred because acceptance of benefits from the Plan constitutes an agreement to reimburse the Plan for any benefits the covered person receives.

The covered person also must take any reasonably necessary action to protect the Plan's subrogation and reimbursement right. That means by accepting benefits from the Plan, the covered person agrees to notify the Plan Administrator if and when the covered person institutes a lawsuit or other action or enters into settlement negotiations with another party (including his or her insurance company) in connection with or related to the conduct of another party.

The covered person also must cooperate with the Plan Administrator's reasonable requests concerning the Plan's subrogation and reimbursement rights and must keep the Plan Administrator informed of any important developments in his or her action. The covered person also agrees that the Plan Administrator may withhold any future benefits paid by the Plan to the extent necessary to reimburse the Plan under the Plan's subrogation or reimbursement rights.

To secure the rights of the Plan under this section, the covered person hereby:

If the covered person does not sign and deliver any such documents for any reason (including, but not limited to, the fact that the covered person was not given an agreement to sign or is unable or refuses to sign), the Plan Administrator, in its sole discretion, may or may not advance benefits to the covered person under the Plan.

If the Plan Administrator has advanced benefits, it has the right to subrogation and reimbursement whether or not the covered person has signed the agreement. The covered person shall not take any action that prejudices the Plan's right of reimbursement.

For information on the Plan's funding status, visit "Plan Information."

By enrolling in the Plan and applying for benefits from the Plan, you and your covered dependents (including minor dependents), agree and acknowledge that benefits are not payable to or on behalf of a covered person or dependent when the injury or illness occurs through an act or omission of another person, party, or entity, and any such payments made or advanced by the Plan are subject to the following terms and conditions.

The Plan's provisions concerning subrogation/right of recovery, equitable liens, and other equitable remedies (outlined above and more fully below) supersede the applicability of the federal common law and equitable doctrines commonly referred to as the "make whole" rule, the "double-recovery" rule and the "common fund" rule. These doctrines have no applicability to the Plan's right of recovery hereunder.

By accepting benefits from this Plan, you and your covered dependents automatically assign to the Plan any rights you or they may have to recover all or part of the same covered expenses of the benefits paid on behalf of you and/or your covered dependents from another source, including another group health plan, insurer or individual, limited, however, to the amount of covered expenses the Plan has paid on behalf of you and/or your covered dependents. This assignment also grants the Plan a right to recover from your no-fault auto insurance carrier in a situation where no third party may be liable, and from any uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage.

By virtue of this assignment, the Plan is entitled to recover 100% of the amounts paid, or to be paid, by the Plan on behalf of you or your covered dependents (including minor dependents) from all recoveries by you or your covered dependents from any other party (whether by lawsuit, mediation, arbitration, settlement, award, judgment, order, insurance or otherwise) ("Recovered Funds"). This assignment includes, without limitation, the assignment to the Plan of a right to any Recovered Funds paid by any other party to you or your covered dependents (including minor dependents and wrongful death beneficiaries) or paid on behalf of you or your covered dependents (including minor dependents and wrongful death beneficiaries), or on behalf of the estate of any covered person.

You and your covered dependents are required to reimburse the Plan on a first-dollar basis (which means that the Plan will have a first priority claim to any Recovered Funds), regardless of whether the Recovered Funds amount to a full or partial recovery. Further, the Plan is entitled to recovery regardless of how the Recovered Funds are characterized (e.g., pain and suffering, punitive damages, benefits, lost wages, loss of future earnings, medical expenses, costs and/or expenses, attorneys' fees) and regardless of whether the recovery is designated as payment for medical services or expenses. The Plan's share of the recovery will not be reduced because you or your covered dependent (including your minor dependent) has not received the full damages claimed, unless the Plan agrees in writing to a reduction. Any reduction is subject to prior written approval by the Plan, or agent of the Plan who administers the Plan's subrogation, reimbursement recoveries.

This assignment also allows the Plan to pursue any claim that you or your covered dependent (including your minor dependent) may have against any third party, or its insurer, whether or not you or your covered dependent choose to pursue that claim. In the event you or your covered dependent elects not to pursue your claim(s) against a third party, the Plan shall be equitably subrogated to your (or your covered dependent's) right of recovery.

When you, or your covered dependent – and not the Plan – pursue and obtain any Recovered Funds, you or your covered dependent shall be responsible for all expenses involved in obtaining that recovery (whether obtained by lawsuit, mediation, arbitration, settlement or, award, judgment, order, insurance or otherwise), including but not limited to, all attorneys' fees, costs, and expenses; which fees, costs, and expenses shall not reduce the amount that you or your covered dependents (including minor dependents) are required to reimburse the Plan, and the Plan's rights shall not be reduced due to covered person's own negligence. For purposes of clarity, the Plan is not subject to any state laws or equitable doctrine, and the Plan's first claim on the recovery operates on every dollar received from a third party, even those covering your or your covered dependent's litigation costs and attorneys' fees.

By accepting benefits from this Plan, you agree that the Plan has established an equitable lien against any money or property you or your covered dependents (or any individual or entity acting on your or their behalf such as a legal representative or agent) recover from any other party, including but not limited to, an insurer (including but not limited to third-party, no-fault, med-pay, uninsured, or underinsured motorist), another group health plan or another individual, sufficient to reimburse the Plan in full for benefits advanced. For purposes of clarity, this equitable lien also attaches to any payment received from workers' compensation, whether by judgment, award, settlement or otherwise, where the Plan has paid benefits prior to a determination that the covered expenses arose out of and in the course of employment. Payment by workers' compensation insurers will be deemed to mean that such a determination has been made.

The Plan's lien exists at the time the Plan pays benefits, and if you or your covered dependents file a petition for bankruptcy, you and your covered dependents agree that the Plan's lien existed prior to the creation of the bankruptcy estate.

You further agree to hold any reimbursement or recovery received by you or your covered dependents (or any legal representative or agent) in trust on behalf of the Plan to cover all benefits paid by the Plan.

The Plan reserves all rights to seek enforcement of its rights hereunder, including but not limited to, the right to file a lawsuit against you or your covered dependent or any other party possessing or controlling any Recovered Funds, and the right to recoup amounts owed in any other manner prescribed by law.

As a participant in this Plan, the covered person is required to cooperate with efforts to recover benefits paid under the Plan. The covered person must also notify the Plan Administrator within 45 days of the notice which is given to a third party of the intention to recover damages due to the covered person's illness or injury.

This cooperation includes providing the Plan with relevant information (including information concerning any other applicable insurance coverage that may be available such as automobile, home and other liability insurance coverage and coverage under another group health plan), providing the identity of any other person or entity and their insurers, if applicable) that may be obligated to provide payments or benefits on account of the same illness or injury for which the Plan made payments, signing and delivering documents the Plan reasonably requests, and obtaining the Plan's consent before releasing any party from liability. If you enter into litigation or settlement negotiations regarding the obligations of other parties, you must not prejudice, in any way, the Plan's subrogation and reimbursement rights.

Failure by you or your covered dependents to cooperate with the Plan in the exercise of these rights may result, at the discretion of the Plan or the Plan Administrator, in a denial or reduction of future benefit payments available to you or your covered dependents under the Plan by an amount, up to the aggregate amount paid by the Plan that was subject to the Plan's equitable lien, but for which the Plan was not reimbursed.