The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will be implementing an option that will allow certain Medicare beneficiaries to obtain Medicare’s final conditional payment amount prior to settlement. This option will be available in February 2012, for certain settlements involving physical trauma based injuries where treatment has been completed.

Under this option, the beneficiary or his representative will calculate the amount of Medicare’s conditional payment amount using information received from the Medicare Secondary Payer Recovery Contractor (MSPRC), the MyMedicare website, or other claims information available to the beneficiary. The MSPRC will review this amount and, if finding the amount accurate, will respond with Medicare’s final conditional payment amount within 60 days. To secure the final conditional payment amount, the beneficiary must settle within 60 days after the date of Medicare’s response.

In order to use this option, ALL of the following criteria must be met:

1. The liability insurance (including self-insurance) settlement will be for a physical trauma based injury (the settlement does not relate to ingestion, exposure, or medical implant);
2. The total liability settlement, judgment, award, or other payment will be $25,000 or less;
3. The Date of Incident occurred at least six months before the beneficiary or his representative submits his proposed conditional payment amount to Medicare;
4. The beneficiary demonstrates that treatment has been completed and no further treatment is expected either through a written physician attestation or by certifying in writing that no medical treatment related to the case has occurred for at least 90 days prior to submitting the proposed conditional payment amount to Medicare.

Explicit instructions on how to use this process will be posted on the Medicare Secondary Payer Recovery Contractor’s website at www.msprc.info by January 15, 2012. CMS will leverage existing processes to the greatest extent possible. This is an initial step to provide beneficiaries and their representatives with Medicare’s conditional payment amount prior to settlement. CMS plans to expand this option as it gains experience with this process.

New Fixed Percentage Option For Medicare’s Recovery Claim
Effective November 7, 2011, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has implemented a new and simple fixed percentage option that is available to certain beneficiaries. This option is available to beneficiaries who receive certain types of liability insurance (including self-insurance) settlements of $5000 or less.

A full explanation, including instructions on how and when to elect this option, is available in the Fixed Percentage Option section of both the Attorney and Beneficiary Toolkits.
Beneficiary Alert: $300 Threshold on Liability Settlements
Medicare has implemented a $300 threshold for certain Liability Insurance cases. If all of Medicare’s criteria are met, the MSPRC will not recover against the beneficiary’s settlement, judgment, award or other payment.

We have posted a detailed explanation in the Attorney and Insurer Toolkits.

Alert: Liability Insurance (Including Self-Insurance) and December 5, 1980 (12/5/1980):
Additional policy details have been provided by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on liability insurance (including self-insurance) cases involving exposure, ingestion, and implantation.  Click the link below to view the update.   http://www.msprc.info/forms/Exposure-Ingestion-TDL.pdf.