Medicare Compliance Archives - Trial Lawyer View

November 4, 2021

Navigating the Shifting Landscape of MSP Compliance

The wait for proposed rulemaking related to Medicare Secondary Payer (MSP) compliance obligations regarding future medical services in liability settlements continues. Although the Department of Health and Human Services issued their initial notification of proposed rulemaking in the fall of 2018, the target date has been moved several times and is currently set for October of 2021. However, focusing solely on the notice of proposed rules will cause a practitioner to overlook the impact of important MSP compliance changes taking place with Section 111 Mandatory Insurer Reporting obligations on settlements.

May 26, 2021

Lawyers Assisting Medicare Beneficiaries, Heed These Words of Warning

Medicare is complex, to say the least. Medicare Parts A, B, C, and D all cover distinct but overlapping services. Meanwhile, Medicare eligibility is connected to Social Security Disability Income, and the Medicare Secondary Payer Act is a series of statutory provisions that would make even the most detail-oriented person’s head spin.

April 19, 2021

How the Acronym “CAD” Can Help You Ensure You’re Medicare Compliant

Once you’ve already identified someone as a Medicare beneficiary (or someone with the reasonable expectation of becoming one within thirty months), the easiest way to make sure you’re compliant is to follow the acronym “CAD.”

April 13, 2021

How the Advent of the Mandatory Insurer Requirement Causes Problems for Lawyers

As of April 1, 2011, a Responsible Reporting Entities/insurers (RRE), (liability insurer, self-insurer, no-fault insurer, and workers’ compensation carriers) must determine whether a claimant is a Medicare beneficiary (“entitled”) and if so, provide certain information to the secretary of Health and Human Services (hereinafter “secretary”) when the claim is resolved. This is the so-called Mandatory Insurer Requirement, MIR for short.

April 9, 2021

The Unregulated New Frontier of Medicare Set-Asides

Consider this scenario: you represent a current Medicare beneficiary in a third-party liability case. As part of the workup of the case, you determine the client will need future medical care related to the injuries suffered, and you settle the case. Since the client is a Medicare beneficiary, the defendant will report the settlement under the Mandatory Insurer Reporting law as it is greater than $750 in gross settlement proceeds.

April 8, 2021

What is a Medicare Set-Aside?

For many years, personal injury cases have been resolved without consideration of Medicare’s secondary payer status even though since 1980 all forms of liability insurance have been primary to Medicare. At settlement, by judgment or through an award, an injury victim would receive damages for future medical expenses that were Medicare-covered. However, none of those settlement dollars would be used to pay for future Medicare-covered health needs. Instead, the burden would be shifted from the primary payer (liability insurer or workers’ compensation carrier) to Medicare. Injury victims would routinely provide their Medicare card to providers for injury-related care.

April 5, 2021

Confused by Medicare? Here’s a Helpful Overview

The Medicare program—and the related Social Security Disability Income/Retirement benefit (SSDI)—is one of the primary benefit programs available to those who are injured and disabled. Understanding the basics of this program is imperative to protecting the client’s eligibility for their benefits.

Medicare and SSDI benefits are an entitlement and are not income or asset sensitive. Clients who meet Social Security’s definition of disability and have paid enough quarters into the system can receive disability benefits regardless of their financial situation.

Medicare Compliance