Parnell

Under the Hospital Lien Act (HLA; Civ. Code, §§ 3045.1-3045.6), a hospital that treats a patient injured by a third party tortfeasor may assert a lien against any judgment, settlement, or compromise recovered by that patient from the tortfeasor in the amount of its “reasonable and necessary charges” (§ 3045.1). In this case, a hospital received payment from a patient and his health insurer and agreed to accept that payment as “payment in full” for its services. Nonetheless, the hospital asserted a lien under the HLA, seeking to recover the difference between its usual and customary charges and the amount received from the patient and his insurer. We now consider whether the hospital may do so. We conclude that it may not.

I.

Because this case comes before us after the grant of a motion for judgment on the pleadings, we “accept[] as true all material facts alleged” in the complaint. (Smiley v. Citibank (South Dakota) N.A. (1995) 11 Cal.4th 138, 146 [ 44 Cal.Rptr.2d 441 , 900 P.2d 690 ].) The following facts appear from the allegations of the complaint.

Plaintiff Joel K. Parnell was injured in an automobile accident while a passenger in a taxicab. At the time of the…