Synergy’s blog brings you the industry’s foremost thought leadership InSights on matters of healthcare lien resolution and Medicare Secondary Payer Compliance. Visit often to discover helpful InSights on important lien resolution compliance issues.
In Episode 6 of Trial Lawyer View, TLV host and Synergy CEO Jason D. Lazarus speaks with Sara Williams of Alexander Shunnarah Trial Attorneys. They discuss her experience as a Black female attorney in the South, her thoughts on the practice of law, her philosophies on educating future trial lawyers, and what she sees in […]
April 22, 2021 Michael D. Walrath, Esq. Direct provider “liens” against settlement proceeds have teeth, whether hospital or physician liens, statutory or contractual. The various positions of state bar associations on these issues, and the limited law delineating them, have historically been ever shifting and evolving but two things are clear. Liens must be released […]
In Episode 5 of Trial Lawyer View, TLV host and Synergy CEO Jason D. Lazarus sits down with Rich Newsome of Newsome Melton. They discuss his involvement in high-stakes product liability litigation, creating Trial School, and what he sees as the biggest market disruption coming in personal injury law practice. Learn more here.
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 15, 2021 Rasa Fumagalli JD, MSCC, CMSP-F Medicare Secondary Payer (MSP) compliance settlement terms utilized by defendants are often overly broad in nature. The recent opinion, Kupolati v. Village of Timber Creek Association, 2021 N.J. Super. Unpub. LEXIS 7 (App. Div. Jan. 5, 2021) and Abate v. Wal-Mart Stores, No. 1:17-cv-288-SPB, 2020 WL 7027481 […]
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.
In Episodes 3 & 4 of Trial Lawyer View, TLV host and Synergy CEO Jason D. Lazarus has a wide-ranging heartfelt discussion with Nathan Carter of Colling Gilbert Wright & Carter about representing him after he was struck by a car while cycling, cases Nathan has handled that have made a difference, his philosophies on […]
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.
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.