October 2021: New Target Date for MSP Future Medical Obligation Regulations
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has updated the target date for its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on Medicare Secondary Payer (MSP) and Future Medicals to October 2021. The link to the listing of the NPRM on the OIRA website can be found here.
This NPRM potentially stands to impact liability, no-fault, and workers’ compensation settlements to the extent of clarifying obligations with respect to protection of Medicare’s future medical interest vis a vis a Liability Medicare Set-Aside (LMSA), No-Fault Medicare Set-Asides (NFMSAs), and Workers’ Compensation Medicare Set-Asides (WCMSAs). The previous target date for the regulation was March of 2021.
The description of the rule states the following:
“This proposed rule would clarify existing Medicare Secondary Payer (MSP) obligations associated with future medical items and services related to liability insurance (including self-insurance), no-fault insurance, and workers’ compensation settlements, judgments, awards, or other payments. Specifically, this rule would clarify that an individual or Medicare beneficiary must satisfy Medicare’s interest with respect to future medical items and services related to such settlements, judgments, awards, or other payments. This proposed rule would also remove obsolete regulations.”
Detailed guidance and a formal CMS review process currently exists for WCMSAs, but what stands to change from existing MSP regulations is clarity around LMSAs and NFMSAs, as practically no guidance on the foregoing exists. For more information on the state of LMSAs, please see our prior blog “Liability Medicare Set-Asides: Are They a Mythical Unicorn or Realistic Obligation under the MSP?”
Sanderson Firm will continue to monitor this NPRM and other MSP updates. For questions, please contact us.
Join us for our next upcoming webinar on June 30, 2021, at 1:30 EST on “Medicare Conditional Payments: Fundamentals and Best Practice Strategies!” Registration is free; however, no CEUs/CLEs will be offered. Register here: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_yYfmBE6XTUuBNJRKqm3GFA
