WCRC Solicitation Released: Liability and No-Fault MSAs on the Horizon for 2018

As a follow-up to my recent blogwire articles regarding a change in the Workers’ Compensation Review Contractor (WCRC) and the new WCRC reviewing Liability Medicare Set-Asides (LMSAs), CMS has now released the official solicitation for the award. The solicitation can be found here, and my latest prior blogwire article on this topic can be found here.

The solicitation states that proposal bids are due January 30, 2017 and the anticipated award date will be June 30, 2017. The contract term for the new award will run July 1, 2017 through June 30, 2022.

On pages 5 and 94 of the solicitation, CMS has indicated that the new contractor would not begin reviewing LMSAs and No-Fault MSAs at least until July 1, 2018. However, while it appears that the new contractor would not take on the voluntary LMSA and NFMSA review process until that time, recall that back on June 8, 2016 CMS issued an Alert that it was looking to expand its current review process to include the review of other set-aside amounts and that it would schedule town hall meetings to discuss the expansion of this review. Therefore, we should still expect that CMS will be looking for stakeholder feedback on an LMSA process this year in 2017. For my prior blogwire article on CMS’ LMSA June 8^th alert, please click here.

In the interim, my recommendations for liability and no-fault payers are the following: 1) Monitor for additional activity from CMS this year on LMSAs and NFMSAs. Stakeholder feedback is vital to ensure that any LMSA/NFMSA process introduced by CMS in 2018 includes a review process which remains voluntary and such process does not hinder settlements. I will continue to post/blog updates on this issue. 2) Engage an MSP legal experts to assist with questions and assistance with release language for liability/no-fault claims with Medicare beneficiaries. I can be reached at Heather.Sanderson@francosignor.com. 

About the Author

Heather Schwartz Sanderson, Esq., MSCC, CHPE, CLMP, CMSP

Heather is Chief Legal Officer for Franco Signor LLC, the nation's compliance authority for Medicare Secondary Payer (MSP) matters. She has lectured on MSP compliance to the workers' compensation and liability insurance communities at conferences, associations, and individual offices nationwide. She is a regularly published author on court decisions and legislative reforms involving Medicare Set-Asides, conditional payments, and Mandatory Insurer Reporting issues. Understanding that compliance with the Medicare Secondary Payer Act can be at times complex and frustrating for those that handle claims with Medicare beneficiaries, Heather's goal is to speak and write with the primary goal being simple and understandable solutions to compliance. 

Heather can be reached at Heather.Sanderson@francosignor.com
Franco Signor's Blog can be found at: http://www.francosignor.com/msp-blog/

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