A spokeswoman for Wal-Mart said the company was obliged to act in the interest of the health benefits of its employees as a whole. "While the case involves a tragic situation, our responsibility is to follow the provisions of the [company health] plan which governs the health benefits of our associates," said Wal-Mart spokesperson Sharon Weber.

What does this mean for other accident victims? If you receive health insurance benefits under an ERISA health plan, you may be forced to repay 100% of these benefits back out of the settlement recovery. It's as if your health plan benefits are really just a "loan" instead of insurance. It does not matter that the employee has often paid for these benefits through payroll deductions and other payments.

Clearly, Congress needs to act. The ERISA laws should be amended to permit the innocent accident victim to keep the benefits in certain cases, or at least force the health plan to share in the legal costs incurred by the victim by having to hire an attorney and incur costs to recover a settlement. If this problem is not fixed, accident victims like Shank will continue to suffer unjust results.

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