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.
July 9, 2020 By Jason D. Lazarus Medicare Secondary Payer Compliance for law firms when it comes to “futures” is all about risk mitigation. How do you properly and compliantly close a file when you represent a Medicare beneficiary? The biggest risk a trial lawyer faces when dealing with settlements for a Medicare beneficiary is […]
May 13, 2020 An often-overlooked issue for plaintiff attorneys is the management of taxation of their own contingent legal fees. As part of the normal rhythm of their practices, many attorneys experience peaks and valleys with their own personal income. This leads to concerns for trial attorneys about the unpredictability of their own income. However, […]
April 29, 2020 United States of America vs. Carrigan & Anderson, PLLC, Stephen P. Carrigan: U.S. Attorney brings suit against personal injury lawyer and his firm over failing to pay back Medicare for conditional payments By Jason D. Lazarus, J.D., LL.M., MSCC, CSSC In yet another example of Medicare compliance-related issues, a Houston law firm […]
April 9, 2020 By: Evelynn Passino One of the many practice points rarely taught in law school: your client may lose public benefits as a result of a recovery, and you have a duty, as their attorney, to discuss benefit preservation with them. That does not mean you have a duty to actually preserve their […]
March 25, 2020 B. Josh Pettingill We are oftentimes asked about injured workers who have a Medicare Advantage Plan (MAP) and if they still need to use their Workers’ Compensation Medicare Set-Aside (WCMSA) funds if the MAP will cover all their medical care. This brief post will explain Medicare’s position on this issue and then […]
March 24, 2020 Now, more than ever, proper settlement planning is critical for disabled clients. Protecting their recovery should be top of mind and a high priority given the turbulence in our global markets. There are always going to be ups and downs in the financial markets. The real estate market has crashed. The tech […]
March 2, 2020 The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals weighed in on the question of whether the Medicare statute, which provides a three-year timeline to the government to request repayment, applies to a private entity providing Medicare benefits (Medicare Advantage plans). The Court’s answer is that the claims filing provision does not bar a claim […]
February 13, 2020 An inquiry that Synergy receives on a regular basis involves a Medicare-eligible claimant who has both a workers’ compensation and a third-party liability companion case. The third-party liability claim has resolved and now the workers’ comp carrier has a lien against the liability claim for the amount that has been paid out […]
February 13, 2020 By: Michael Walrath Some of the most frustrating and murky issues facing attorneys representing injured clients stem from alleged direct provider “liens” against settlement proceeds. The positions of various state bar associations on these issues, and the limited law delineating them, have historically been ever-shifting and evolving. Ethical Obligation to Protect Liens […]