Updated Life Table To Be Used Starting January 2019

CMS recently issued a notification regarding the use of Life Tables in Workers’ Compensation Medicare Set Asides. Per the notice found here, CMS advised that beginning January 5, 2019 CMS will convert to the CDC’s “Table 1: Life Table for the total population: United States, 2015” for the Workers’ Compensation Medicare Set Aside life expectancy calculations. They then provided the link to said table here. Interestingly, comparing to the 2014 Life Table, the life expectancy in the updated table have decreased slightly. Ex.: An individual who is sixty-one (61) had a life expectancy in 2014 of 22.5 while the updated 2015 table shows a life expectancy of 22.4, which would be a whole year difference for MSA allocation purposes.

The Gordon and Rees Medicare group will continue to follow this issue closely and will update you as soon as additional information is available.