While text of the proposed rules have not yet been released, it appears that CMS has developed regulations that will ‘advise’ that parties must determine whether an allocation for future medicals exists within a gross liability award, and then document those efforts in a pre-defined format.  If this is the case, this would be the first CMS guidance on future medicals within liability settlements since the CMS memo of September, 2010.  If our suspicsions are correct, this represents a significant development in the MSP world.

Guidance as to how parties should address future medicals in liability settlements has been virtually non-existent until now. The first step, in play now,  inlcudes internal vetting within the Executive Branch of the federal government.  Following Executive Branch approval, CMS will release the proposed regulations to the settlement community for comment.  Each comment will be considered, and if appropriate, will lead to modifications and a new comment period prior to CMS enacting the regulation.

When available, a detailed analysis of the proposed regulation will be available on our website.