Blog Archives

MSPN Elects Dan Anders as President

February 3, 2021

Dan Anders who was quoted in the Claims Journal

Tower’s Chief Compliance Officer, Dan Anders, has been elected president of the National Medicare Secondary Payer Network (MSPN). MSPN is the premier organization for individuals, companies and law firms who want to stay apprised of Medicare Secondary Payer compliance developments and collaborate on industry leading education and advocacy efforts. Check out the news release: Tower MSA Partners Dan Anders Elected President of the National Medicare Secondary Payer Network.

This is the second time in three years Tower has had one of our executives at the helm of this organization. Our CEO, Rita Wilson, served as president in 2018.

Dan takes office as the organization completes rebranding itself from its former name of the National Alliance of Medicare Set-Aside Professionals (NAMSAP) to the National MSP Network. Over the years, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) expanded its MSP enforcement mechanisms beyond Medicare Set-Asides. The organization kept pace, adding Medicare conditional payment recovery, mandatory insurer reporting to Medicare, and MSA professional administration and settlement structuring to its education and advocacy initiatives.

Dan looks forward to working with MSPN’s Executive Committee and Board, consisting of the most experienced and knowledgeable professionals in the MSP compliance community, to accomplish the organization’s 2021 goals.

Additionally, he will continue the organization’s positive working relationship with CMS’s Division of MSP Program Operations, which enables MSPN members to ask questions and raise concerns and provide solutions directly with those who develop and implement MSP policy while learning the agency’s reasoning and viewpoint firsthand.

If you would like to learn more about MSPN, please contact Dan Anders at daniel.anders@towermsa.com or (888) 331-4941, ext. 219.

CMS Releases Technical Updates to Section 111 User Guide

January 26, 2021

Tower MSA Partners explains CMS updates to ORM and NOINJ rules in the Section 111 reporting user guide.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has begun the new year with some updates to its MMSEA Section 111 NGHP User Guide. This guide provides everything and anything you ever wanted to know about mandatory insurer reporting by non-group health plans. Version 6.2 provides the following updates:

$750 Reporting Threshold

In follow-up to its November 2020 announcement that it will be maintaining the $750 TPOC threshold for reporting and Medicare conditional payment recovery, CMS states:

As of January 1, 2021, the threshold for physical trauma-based liability insurance settlements will remain at $750. CMS will maintain the $750 threshold for no-fault insurance and workers’ compensation settlements, where the no-fault insurer or workers’ compensation entity does not otherwise have ongoing responsibility for medicals (Sections 6.4.2, 6.4.3, and 6.4.4).

Key takeaway: Maintaining the $750 threshold means there are no changes to the reporting processes, determinations of claims that should be reported, or when conditional payments should be investigated or resolved.

Reporting Future ORM Termination Date

Per CMS:

To address situations where Responsible Report Entities (RREs) can identify future ORM termination dates based on terms of the insurance contract, RREs can now enter a future Ongoing Responsibility for Medicals (ORM) Termination Date (Field 79) up to 75 years from the current date (Section 6.7.1)

Key takeaway: A future ORM termination date can only be submitted if it is certain, e.g., the date is specified in an insurance contract or a statutory limitation provides for its exact determination. The prior policy only allowed the reporting of an ORM termination date that was six months into the future. The expansion to 75 years should allow for most date certain ORM terminations to be reported.

Data Exchange Update

Per CMS:

As part of CMS’ commitment to the modernization of the Coordination of Benefits & Recovery (COB&R) operating environment, changes are being implemented to move certain electronic file transfer data exchanges to the CMS Enterprise File Transfer (EFT) protocol. As part of this change the exchange of data with the COB&R program via Connect:Direct to GHINY SNODE will be discontinued. The final cutover is targeted to occur in April 2021. File naming conventions and other references have been updated in this guide. Contact your EDI Representative for details (Sections 10.2 and 10.3).

Key takeaway: Right now, CMS offers four methods of data transmission that Section 111 RREs or their reporting agents can use to submit and receive electronic files. CMS is discontinuing the Connect:Direct method, and since Tower does not communicate with CMS via this method there will be no impact to our reporting processes.

Policy Number Now a Key Field

Per CMS:

To support previous system changes, Policy Number (Field 54) has been added as a key field. If this field changes, RREs must submit a delete Claim Input File record that matches the previously accepted add record, followed by a new add record with the changed information (i.e., delete/add process) (Sections 6.1.2, 6.6.1, 6.6.2, and 6.6.4).

Key takeaway: Previously, if a claim input file was updated with a different policy number for the same claim it would create two records with the BCRC. This could duplicate Medicare conditional payment recovery efforts. CMS’s solution is to have the RRE delete the prior record with the old policy number and add a new record with the new policy number.

Retraction of Soft Code Error

Per CMS:

In Version 6.1, we announced that several input errors will become “soft” errors starting April 5, 2021. However, CP03 will not become a soft edit. The Office Code/Site ID (Field 53), which triggers CP03, is used to identify correspondence addresses, and if incorrect, could result in mail being sent to the wrong place. Therefore this error will continue to reject the record (Appendix F).

Key Takeaway: An error in Office Code/Site ID (Field 53) will not be considered a soft edit and will result in file rejection. An earlier Tower article, November CMS Mandatory Reporting and Conditional Payment Updates, explained these so-called “soft” code errors.

If you have any questions on these updates to the Section 111 User Guide, please reach out to Tower’s Chief Compliance Officer, Dan Anders, at daniel.anders@towermsa.com or 888.331.4941.

Three Medicare Secondary Payer (MSP) Predictions for 2021

January 14, 2021

rainbow over a highway with the year 2021 painted, illustrating predictions for Medicare Secondary Payer in 2021

We take a look at what’s in the crystal ball for Medicare Secondary Payer (MSP) short-term issues in the year ahead.

This year marks the 20^th anniversary of the famous —or infamous, depending on your perspective— “Patel Memo” that formally launched CMS’s Workers’ Compensation Medicare Set-Aside review process. It was probably safe to assume that a government program like this would still be around two decades later. However, the expansion of CMS’s authority to require mandatory reporting along with stepped up efforts to recover conditional payments by both Medicare and Medicare Advantage plans was less predictable.

I won’t hazard a guess on what Medicare Secondary Payer compliance will be like 20 years from now but will predict the outcomes of some short-term issues.

Liability MSAs

In June 2012 CMS issued an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) with ideas as to how Medicare’s interests could be considered in the settlement of future medicals in a liability case. Ultimately, the ANPRM was withdrawn in October 2014.

Nothing further was heard from CMS management until December 2018 when it indicated proposed rules would be issued in September 2019. Subsequent notices postponed the date to March 2021.

Prediction: Since CMS will have new leadership and its attention has turned to vaccine distribution, I suspect we will not see proposed rules on LMSAs this year. Even if CMS proposes regulations, they would not be implemented until after a comment period followed by revisions, which would likely stretch into 2022.

Section 111 Penalties

On February 18, 2020, CMS issued its proposed regulations specifying how and when it would impose civil money penalties if Non-Group Health Plans fail to meet Section 111 Mandatory Insurer Reporting responsibilities. A comment period ended on April 20, 2020 (Please see CMP Comments Submitted for Tower’s comments on the proposal).

Prediction: Since CMS completed the process of releasing the proposed rule and receiving comment and the issuance of this regulation is statutorily required by the SMART Act of 2012 prior to issuing any penalties, I expect the final rule will be issued in 2021. Once issued, it will likely become effective within 60 days.

PAID Act

On December 11, 2020, President Trump signed into law HR 8900, Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2021, which included the provisions of the Provide Accurate Information Directly Act or PAID Act.

The PAID Act requires CMS to provide applicable plans (liability insurance, no-fault insurance and workers’ compensation laws or plans) access to Medicare beneficiary enrollment status in Medicare Advantage and Part D Prescription Drug plans through the Section 111 Mandatory Insurer Reporting process. (Please review PAID Act Becomes Law for a full explanation of the law and its implications.)

Prediction: Per the law, CMS must provide access to Medicare Advantage and Part D plan information by December 11, 2021 (one year from the date of enactment). As CMS must implement technical changes to the Section 111 reporting platform to provide such access, it may not be ready by that date.

Beyond these three predictions, some issues to watch in the coming year:

Continued trend toward non-submit MSAs
More professional administration of MSAs
Cases affecting Medicare Advantage plan recovery rights
Per proposal from President-elect Biden, lowering of Medicare eligibility age to 60
“New” MSA reform legislation

A happy and safe new year to you and your families.

WorkCompCentral Explains the PAID Act

January 4, 2021

Tower MSA Partners covers CMS new guide on Medicare conditional payment appeals and the upcoming Section 111 reporting webinar.

The recently enacted PAID Act fixes long-term annoyances for MSA companies in securing accurate information about beneficiaries’ Medicare Advantage prescriptions drugs plans.

Right now, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) can tell payers which workers’ compensation claimants are Medicare beneficiaries. However, the agency has historically said that privacy concerns prevent it from sharing which Medicare Advantage Plans or Prescription Drug Plans these beneficiaries have joined. This means Medicare Set Aside (MSA) companies and insurers have to ask claimants or their attorneys and the information was sketchy at best, leading to conditional payment demands – and some lawsuits – post settlement.

In mid-December, the Provide Accurate Information Directly (PAID) Act was passed and signed into law, enabling Medicare to respond to queries by providing the name and address of beneficiary’s Medicare Advantage or prescription drug plans. The law should help end years of aggravation over Medicare Advantage Plan identification, according to Tower MSA Partners’ Dan Anders, who was interviewed for WorkCompCentral’s article on the law: Medicare Set-Aside Firms Applaud Passage of PAID Act Provisions.

PAID Act Becomes Law

Tower MSA Partners Wishes You a Warm & Restful Holiday Season

December 22, 2020

a sprig of holly and the words Happy Holidays

This year has brought deeper meaning to traditional holiday wishes. We are thinking about our health, families, and partners in different ways and re-thinking priorities. But as we adapt to new realities, our commitment to you–our partners–is unwavering. Thank you for your loyalty during this challenging year.

We sincerely hope you enjoy a happy and healthy holiday.

Your friends at Tower MSA Partners

PAID Act Becomes Law

December 16, 2020

The recently enacted PAID Act ensures that insurance carriers have access to Medicare Advantage plan enrollment information

On December 11, 2020, President Trump signed into law HR 8900, Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2021, which included the provisions of the Provide Accurate Information Directly Act or PAID Act (It is named Transparency of Medicare Secondary Payer Reporting Information in Section 1301 of the law).

What does all this mean? In short, the PAID Act requires the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) provide applicable plans (liability insurance, no-fault insurance and workers compensation laws or plans) access to Medicare beneficiary enrollment status in Medicare Advantage and Part D Prescription Drug plans. Currently, this information can only be obtained from claimants which impedes the applicable plans’ efforts at mitigating their exposure to reimbursement claims from these Medicare Advantage and Part D plans.

Background on PAID Act

CMS has consistently asserted that Medicare Advantage and Part D plans have the same or similar rights of recovery under the Medicare Secondary Payer (MSP) Act as CMS itself. Federal courts have largely agreed with CMS’s position, notably finding Medicare Advantage plans can seek post-settlement reimbursement against applicable plans, including double damages.

Presently, the applicable plans do not have access to Medicare Advantage and Part D plan enrollment information. CMS claims statutory privacy limitations prevent it from providing access. Plans are forced to rely on claimants to voluntarily share their Medicare Advantage plan or Part D plan enrollment, an inconsistent and unreliable method.

To address this problem, a group of industry stakeholders, through the Medicare Advocacy Recovery Coalition (MARC), advocated for the PAID Act. The National Medicare Secondary Payer Network (formerly NAMSAP), in which Tower is a corporate partner and member, endorsed the bill in 2018.

The bill, now law, provides that if through the Section 111 query process the claimant is identified as a Medicare beneficiary, then CMS must also respond with the following:

Whether a claimant subject to the query is or during the preceding 3-year period has been, entitled to benefits under the program under this title on any basis; and

to the extent applicable, the plan name and address of any Medicare Advantage plan under part C and any prescription drug plan under part D in which the claimant is enrolled or has been enrolled during such period.

In other words, if the claimant has been enrolled in a Medicare Advantage or Part D plan in the prior three years, the applicable plan will have access to that information through the Section 111 Mandatory Insurer Reporting query process.

Practical Implications

We applaud the passage of the PAID Act, which will make it easier for payers to proactively identify and then investigate and resolve Medicare Advantage and Part D Prescription Drug plan reimbursement claims. As a result, claims can be settled with confidence that a reimbursement claim or lien will not pop-up weeks, months or years later.

CMS has one year after the date of enactment, that is December 11, 2021, to have the enhanced Section 111 query process in place. When Tower receives technical guidance on how this change will be incorporated into the current Medicare beneficiary query process, we will update our Section 111 reporting clients.

As always, if you have any questions, contact Dan Anders, Tower’s Chief Compliance Officer, at daniel.anders@towermsa.com or 888.331.4941.

WorkCompCentral Explains the PAID Act

Celebrex and Abilify Price Drops Trigger MSA Reductions

December 14, 2020

Vial of pills illustrating MSA Reductions in RX costs

Recently, the lowest average wholesale price of Celebrex 200mg and the price of multiple strengths of Abilify dropped dramatically resulting in major MSA reductions.

A widely used, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, Celebrex (Celecoxib), is FDA-approved for several conditions:

Ankylosing spondylitis
Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis
Acute migraines
Osteoarthritis
Acute pain
Primary dysmenorrhea
Rheumatoid arthritis

Per Red Book, the lowest average wholesale price for Celecoxib 200mg dropped from $1.79 to $0.33, an 81.56% price reduction.

Abilify (Aripiprazole) is an antipsychotic drug FDA-approved for the following conditions:

Schizophrenia
Acute treatment of manic and mixed episodes associated with bipolar
Adjunctive treatment of major depressive disorder
Irritability associated with autistic disorder
Treatment of Tourette’s disorder

Per Red Book, the lowest average wholesale price for multiple strengths (2mg to 30mg) of Aripiprazole dropped from the $30 to $36 range to a range of $0.07 to $0.17 per dose, an almost 100% price reduction.

Tower Action in Response

Because Tower’s system tracks all medications allocated in MSA reports, we have already pulled reports from the past two years that allocated these medications and advised clients of the potential for MSA reductions. You can also contact us to determine whether a particular MSA qualifies for MSA reductions. Revisions to the MSA can be done now or prior to MSA submission to CMS.

Please contact Dan Anders, Tower’s Chief Compliance Officer, at Daniel.anders@towermsa.com or (888) 331-4941 with questions.

Medicare Conditional Payment Recovery Threshold for 2021

December 1, 2020

chart, dollars and a fountain pen illustrating conditional paument recovery threshold post

In an 11/25/2020 Alert, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that the 2021 conditional payment recovery threshold for liability, no-fault and workers’ compensation settlements will remain at $750. Accordingly, Total Payment Obligations to the Claimant, TPOCs, in the amount of $750 or less are not required to be reported to CMS through the Section 111 Mandatory Reporting process, nor will CMS attempt to recover conditional payments for TPOCs of this amount (The threshold does not apply to liability settlements for alleged ingestion, implantation or exposure cases).

By way of background, pursuant to the SMART Act of 2012, CMS is required to annually determine a threshold amount such that the cost of collection does not outstrip the amount recovered through such collection efforts. CMS’s calculations, which can be found here, resulted in maintaining the $750 threshold.

Practical Implications

As CMS is keeping the $750 threshold for mandatory reporting and conditional payment recovery there are no changes to the reporting processes or determinations as to when conditional payments should be investigated or resolved.

November CMS Mandatory Reporting and Conditional Payment Updates

November CMS News: Mandatory Reporting and Conditional Payment Updates

November 24, 2020

Hand writing What's New?" on a chalkboard for CMS news update

Here’s a recap of recently announced CMS news:

CMS News #1: Medicare Conditional Payment Appeals Guide

In follow-up to its September 2020 webinar on Medicare conditional payment appeals through the Commercial Repayment Center (CRC), CMS converted the slides into an appeals guide. The guide, which can be found here, provides a breakdown of the Medicare conditional payment appeals process and the bases for appeals.

CMS News #2: Updated MMSEA Section 111 Medicare Secondary Payer Mandatory Reporting Guide

Earlier in November, CMS released a Technical Alert and an updated MMSEA Section 111 Medicare Secondary Payer Mandatory Reporting User Guide, Version 6.1, to announce “Section 111 Edits to no Longer Cause Record to Reject.”

In short, starting April 5, 2021, several error codes will be converted into what CMS calls “soft edits.” Soft edits are still considered errors by CMS but will not cause the entire record to be rejected. Examples of such data errors are in fields reporting middle initial of claimant’s name and alleged cause of injury. The Responsible Reporting Entity (RRE) is still responsible for correcting these errors in the next quarterly file submission.

Additionally, a new soft edit will be added and applied to NGHP Claim Input File Detail Record files when users submit a no-fault insurance claim where the policy limit is less than $1000.00. The input files will be accepted but a new CP13 error will be returned on the response files.

Finally, Claim Input File Detail Records submitted prior to the effective date of the injured party’s entitlement to Medicare will be rejected and returned with a Disposition Code ‘03’ instead of an SP31 error. As a result, if the purpose of the report was to indicate ongoing responsibility for medicals has been accepted (ORM=Y), then the claim will need to be re-submitted in the next quarterly reporting period (at which point the claimant is presumably entitled to Medicare).

CMS News #3: CMS to Host BCRC Recovery Process Webinar

On Wednesday, December 9, 2020 at 1:00 PM ET, CMS will be hosting a webinar focused on the Medicare Secondary Payer (MSP) recovery process when a Medicare beneficiary receives a settlement, judgment, award, or other payment. In other words, following its September webinar featuring the CRC, CMS is now highlighting the work of its Benefits Coordination and Recovery Center (BCRC). The announcement can be found here.

Per the announcement:

The primary intended audience is attorneys who represent beneficiaries and other beneficiary representatives. The BCRC will present a refresher on the beneficiary recovery process, including what functions can be facilitated using the Medicare Secondary Payer Recovery Portal (MSPRP). Such functions include submission of authorizations, requesting a Final Conditional Payment, and electronic payments. The webinar will also discuss alternative demand calculation options (Self-Calculated Conditional Payment Amount and Fixed Percentage Option), as well as other beneficiary recovery tips and best practices. The presentation will be followed by a question and answer session with participants.

We encourage anyone who is new to Medicare conditional payment recovery through the BCRC or would like, as CMS indicates, a refresher, to attend the webinar.

If you have any questions regarding these announcements, please contact Tower’s chief compliance officer, Dan Anders, at daniel.anders@towermsa.com or 888.331.4941.

$750 Medicare Conditional Payment Recovery Threshold Remains for 2021

CMS Introduces Pre-CPNs and Open Debt Reports in Conditional Payment Recovery Process

New Ransomware Attack Threatens Healthcare Sector

October 30, 2020

threatening hooded figure with the word cyber security superimposed to illustrate post on best practices for cybersecurity

Tower’s cybersecurity partners, Avertium and Vigilant, have advised us of a major ransomware attack, primarily targeting the healthcare sector. The threat actor, known as “Ryuk,” uses phishing e-mails to gain access and then control of the victim’s computer and ultimately the company’s network. Once in control, files are encrypted and only decrypted in exchange for a “ransom.”

Avertium sent Tower this joint cybersecurity advisory from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) detailing a resurgence of this threat. Avertium also provided its cyber intelligence report which includes information on the attack and preventive measures.

Tower’s Response to Ransomware Threats

As a company that works directly with the healthcare sector, protection of our client’s information is critical to our Medicare Secondary Payer compliance services. Consequently, upon receiving the report of the Ryuk threat we immediately contacted our cybersecurity partner, Vigilant Technology Solutions, to confirm protections are in place to counteract any threats to Tower’s system.

Vigilant assured us that cybersecurity best practices are in place. First, its CyberDNA solution actively monitors Tower’s data traffic 24/7 and responds to threats in real time. Second, our network-installed McAfee Endpoint Protection (MEP) identifies a potential threat as early as possible and prevents the threat from entering the network or database. Third, our IT pros have previously taken the following recommended actions to keep customer data secure:

Ensure MEP is fully deployed to all applicable/at risk assets within your environment
Provide security awareness communications to employees as a reminder to be mindful during day-to-day activity:
- Never open unsolicited emails and their attachments.
- Be wary of suspicious looking advertisements.
- Limit / avoid the use of personal email on company assets.
Regularly update infrastructure (both operating system and application software) with the latest patches to ensure full coverage in addition to updated McAfee Anti-Virus software.
Ensure backups of data/records are regularly performed and available.

We urge our clients to confirm the above preventive measures are in place for their own network security.

For more detailed information on preventing ransomware attacks, CISA provides an updated guide which can be found here. If you have any questions regarding Tower’s cybersecurity program, please contact Jesse Shade, VP of Information Technology at jesse.shade@towermsa.com or 888.331.4941.