Personal Injury Law

Medicare Reporting Rules Temporarily Abated

By John Day

Hot off the press this morning from AAJ:

As all of you are aware, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS) implementation of the Section 111 reporting requirements of the Medicare Secondary Payer Act (MSP) for liability settlements and the penalties associated with improper lien resolution has created turmoil and delay for anyone trying to reach a settlement in any liability case.

After several months of working with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and CMS, we are pleased to inform you that today CMS is announcing a one year delay in implementation on Section 111 reporting requirements for claims involving liability insurance, retroactive to October 1, 2010 through October 1, 2011. This delay should facilitate settlements and allow for faster resolution of certain cases. In addition, we believe that during this period, CMS will suspend the issuance of MSP guidance documents, which have often been contradictory and a source of confusion.

We will continue to work with both CMS and HHS during this period to reevaluate and clarify their Medicare Secondary Payer requirements. Further, we understand that CMS will not require data that is not reported during the time period of the moratorium to be reported anytime in the future. CMS's notification of this delay can be found on its Web site, click here. 

We understand that this will not resolve all of your issues with the Medicare Secondary Payer Act. AAJ will continue to work on resolving all Medicare Secondary Payer issues; in particular, we will focus on the issues surrounding finality and the lengthy period of time it often takes to resolve a lien with CMS. AAJ Public Affairs will continue to keep you apprised of any changes regarding this issue.

In addition, AAJ Education is holding a teleseminar on Tuesday, November 23 at 2:00 pm ET to discuss Medicare Secondary Payer reporting requirements, the Bradley v. Sebelius 11th Circuit decision, and what the moratorium means and what happens next. This program is open only to AAJ plaintiff members. To register, visit Breaking News in Medicare Secondary Payer Requirements: Moratorium on Reporting Teleseminar or call 800-622-1791 or 202-965-3500, ext. 8612.

In the meantime, if you have additional questions, please contact Sarah Rooney, AAJ Regulatory Counsel, at sarah.rooney@justice.org.

Full post as published by Day on Torts on November 15, 2010 (boomark / email).