Personal Injury Law

Workers' Compensation, Mediated Settlement and the Medicare Set-Aside Trust

By Steve Lombardi

I've been asked to discuss how workers' compensation (WC) benefits, a Medicare Set-Aside (MSA) Trust and the Social Security set-off language (SSL) should be set up for a worker who is totally and permanently out of her job. I've been working on a protocol for such claims as the interplay between the MSA and SSL is extremely important when settling a WC claim. Following the law is even more important when you're talking about permanent total disability and a large monetary settlement for a person already receiving Social Security benefits.

The person asked me the following question:

THE PROBLEM: My mother was involved in a workers compensation case in the state of Iowa. The case went to mediation and she was awarded (yet to be paid) a sum of money. The results of the mediation have set up part of the money to be received to go into a trust to pay for future medical expenses through Medicare. This is due to her age. Does this sound fair as the doctors have stated she is permanently disabled due to a back injury? Also, we believe my mother's law firm may have had a conflict of interest with this case, as their firm represented doctors office (satellite office), which is owned by the hospital of which she worked when she was hurt.

Full post as published by Des Moines Personal Injury Lawyer on February 16, 2008 (boomark / email).