Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani Becomes First 50-State Law Firm

By on April 16, 2019
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With 68th office opening, Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani expands reach, services to every state.

Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani (GRSM) has opened its 68th office, creating the world’s first 50-state law firm.

Name partner Miles Scully heralded the move as a game-changing moment in the legal services industry. “As the first and only law firm to feature offices in all fifty states, we are poised to meet our clients’ needs whenever or wherever they may arise. Our deep bench of talented lawyers coupled with our forward-thinking use of technology enables us to lead the industry in providing efficient and cost effective representation virtually anywhere in the country.”

Managing partner Dion Cominos added, “With an already established national platform, the firm was well-positioned to take the next step of providing full territorial coverage throughout the United States. This milestone represents both the culmination of our journey toward becoming a truly national firm, and the next chapter in a new era of delivering seamless and comprehensive legal services to clients on a nationwide basis.”

Since its founding 45 years ago in San Francisco, GRSM has strategically expanded across the nation, opening offices in markets critical to its clients. And as the firm’s clients have continued to consolidate, grow in size, and span additional industries, GRSM has grown to match and service their needs – initially on the west coast, and eventually throughout the country. The full list of GRSM’s offices and local contacts can be found here.

The firm’s strong growth was recognized by The American Lawyer in 2018, which named GRSM number 103 in top grossing law firms, moving up seven spots from the previous year. Law360 recognized the firm as the 40th largest in the United States in its annual rankings by domestic attorney headcount. The firm was also recognized among the top 45 for diversity on The American Lawyer Diversity Scorecard.

GRSM is a national litigation and business transactions firm with more than 900 lawyers providing full service representation to public and private companies ranging from the Fortune 500 to start-ups. Founded in 1974, GRSM is recognized among the fastest growing and largest law firms in the country.

Highlights of Resulting Media Coverage:
Bloomberg Law, April 15, 2019
Law360, April 15, 2019 (subscription may be required)

Contacts
Dion N. Cominos
Miles D. Scully

Filed under In the News, Medicare, Medicare Secondary Payer, Medicare Set Aside Tagged with , ,

Medicare Coverage App Launches eMedicare

By on January 29, 2019
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Yesterday CMS announced a new app to display what Medicare Part A & B covers. Per the announcement, “The new ‘What’s Covered’ app lets people with Original Medicare, caregivers and others quickly see whether Medicare covers a specific medical item or service. Consumers can now use their mobile device to more easily get accurate, consistent Original Medicare coverage information in the doctor’s office, the hospital, or anywhere else they use their mobile device.” Unsurprisingly, CMS discussed the need for this app as questions about what Medicare covers are some of the most frequent inquiries that CMS receives.

Interestingly, this app also is reported to enable beneficiaries to connect their claims data to applications and tools developed by innovative private-sector companies to help them understand, use, and share their health data.

As discussed previously, this innovation is in line with the directive from the current administration to move toward more electronic access in regards to healthcare. Specifically, this program is called eMedicare, and some of the purported goals are to allow beneficiaries to examine all available plans and see how different coverage choices will affect out-of-pocket costs.

Practitioner’s Note: This app could be extremely beneficial to beneficiaries who have had a MSA approved and are attempting to appropriately spend down their funds. Additionally, it will be interesting to see if the next version of this new app will include the option to compare Part C plans. Considering the narrative, ease of comparing different Part C plans appears to be an important part of the eMedicare program. However, this does beg the question what exactly is the “health data” they aim to share? 

The Gordon & Rees Medicare Compliance team will continue to follow these trends and update you as new developments arise.

Filed under CMS, In the News, Medicare, Medicare Advantage Plans, Medicare Secondary Payer, Uncategorized

CMS Issues updated Section 111 NGHP User Guide

By on January 8, 2019
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As of January 4, 2019, CMS has issued an updated version of the MMSEA Section 111 NGHP User Guide. While version 5.5 of the User Guide has few changes, there are some noteworthy additions. The changes made to the latest version of the User Guide are as follows:

– Ch. III of the User Guide now clarifies that beginning January 1, 2019, the threshold for liability insurance settlements, judgments, awards, or other payments will remain at $750. CMS will also 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 responsibly for medicals. This is outlined in Section 6.4 of Ch. III and in short, simply restates the fact that the TPOC dollar thresholds remain at $750 for liability, no-fault, and workers’ compensation insurance.

– The definition of the ‘Funding Delayed Beyond TPOC Start Date 1’ data field has been updated. This definition can be found in line 82 of Table A-3 and states “If funding is determined after the settlement date (TPOC Date), provide actual or estimated date of funding determination.” The previous definition simply stated “If funding for the TPOC Amount is delayed, provide actual or estimated date of funding.” The same verbiage has been added to lines 95, 98, 101, and 104 of Table A-5 Auxiliary Record, updating the definition of this field for all possible additional TPOCs (TPOCs 2 – 5).

– Ch. IV of the User Guide also provides updated versions of the excluded ICD-9 and ICD-10 tables in order to match the excluded lists that are available through the Section 111 MRA application (https://www.cob.cms.hhs.gov/Section111). These tables can be found in Appendices I and J.

– Lastly, version 5.5 of the User Guide has been updated to only include information from the last four User Guide releases in order to reduce the number of version and revision history pages.

Each chapter of the Section 111 NGHP User Guide, version 5.5 can be downloaded here.

Should you have any questions regarding the above or need any Medicare compliance assistance, please do not hesitate to contact Gordon & Rees Medicare Compliance Group.

Filed under CMS, In the News, Medicare Secondary Payer, Medicare Set Aside, Section 111, Uncategorized

New Year, New Changes to the Workers’ Compensation Medicare Set-Aside Reference Guide

By on January 8, 2019
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Today CMS issued an announcement that they have released Version 2.9 of the Workers’ Compensation Medicare Set-Aside Arrangement Reference Guide (Reference Guide), which can be found here. Per the new version, the changes included in this version of the guide are as follows:

  • To eliminate issues around Development Letter and Alert templates auto populating with individual Regional Office (RO) reviewer names and direct phone numbers, these will now display the generic “Workers’ Compensation Review Contractor (WCRC)” and the WCRC customer service number “(833) 295-3773” (Appendix 5).
  • Per CMS’ request, certain references to memoranda on cms.gov have been removed.
  • The CDC Life Table has been updated for 2015 (Section 10.3).
  • Updates have been provided for spinal cord stimulators and Lyrica (Sections 9.4.5 and 9.4.6.2)

The most noteworthy changes are those in regards to the spinal cord stimulators and Lyrica. In regards to the spinal cord stimulators, CMS specifically included in this version that “Routine replacement of the neurostimulator pulse generator includes the lead implantation up to the number of leads related to the associated code. Revision surgeries should only be used where a historical pattern of a need to relocate leads exist” …and “Surgery pricing may include physician, facility, and anesthesia fees. SCS pricing is based on identification of: 1.) Rechargeable vs. Non-rechargeable and 2.) Single vs. Multiple Arrays (leads). If unknown, CMS will default to non-rechargeable single array.” These pricing clarifications appear to be in line with the approved MSAs that CMS has approved over the last few months.

Lyrica has been a hotly discussed topic over the last few months. Those who are active in the industry have noted that Lyrica has been included more and more in many MSAs for conditions that are not related to a spinal cord injury, when this has been historically argued as an off-label usage. However, CMS seems to have quashed this debate with the release of the updated language regarding this prescription. Per the new update, “Lyrica (Pregabalin) is cited in MicroMedEx for an off-label medication use related to neuropathic pain from spinal cord injury, and a number of scientific studies indicate that Pregabalin shows statistically significant positive results for the treatment of radicular pain (a type of neuropathic pain). Spinal cord neuropathy includes injuries directly to the spinal cord or its supporting structures causing nerve impingement that results in neuropathic pain. Lyrica is considered acceptable for pricing as a treatment for WCMSAs that include diagnoses related to radiculopathy because radiculopathy is a type of neuropathy related to peripheral nerve impingement caused by injury to the supporting structures of the spinal cord.” In other words, a diagnosis of radicular/neuropathic pain would now support the inclusion of Lyrica in a MSA. Again, this has been in line with the recent approvals issued by CMS wherein this prescription medication has been included for radicular pain, such as radicular pain noted into the upper and/or lower extremity pain. However, in its attempts to clarify Lyrica’s accepted usage CMS has muddied the waters in the language when indicating “injury to the supporting structures of the spinal cord”. This could open the door to inclusion for conditions that are arguably unrelated to the spine simply because other areas of the body touch the spine. I.e. If prescribed for pain that originates not at the spine (ex. radicular pain from a shoulder injury).

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

Filed under CMS, In the News, Medicare Secondary Payer, Medicare Set Aside, Uncategorized

LMSA Rules by September?

By and on December 10, 2018
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Once again the possibility of regulations from the Department of Health and Human Services regarding Liability Medicare Set-Asides (LMSA) and No-Fault Medicare Set-Asides (NFMSA) has been brought into the spotlight.  In recent days, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs’ Office of Management and Budget published a notice of proposed rulemaking to provide guidance to Medicare beneficiaries and to protect the Medicare Trust Fund.  The full notice can be found here.  Per the abstract:

“This proposed rule would ensure that beneficiaries are making the best health care choices possible by providing them and their representatives with the opportunity to select an option for meeting future medical obligations that fits their individual circumstances, while also protecting the Medicare Trust Fund. Currently, Medicare does not provide its beneficiaries with guidance to help them make choices regarding their future medical care expenses when they receive automobile and liability insurance (including self-insurance), no fault insurance, and workers’ compensation settlements, judgments, awards, or payments, and need to satisfy their Medicare Secondary Payer (MSP) obligations.”

Interestingly, this proposed rule in regards to Liability Medicare Set-Asides (LMSAs) is noted to have “economically significant” priority. According to the Office of Management and Budgets, “significant” regulatory actions are defined in an executive order as those that: ‘Significant regulatory actions are defined in the Executive Order as those that have an annual effect on the economy of $100 million or more or adversely affect in a material way the economy, a sector of the economy, productivity, competition, jobs, the environment, public health or safety, or State, local, or tribal governments or communities; create a serious inconsistency or otherwise interfere with an action taken or planned by another agency; materially alter the budgetary impact of entitlements, grants, user fees, or loan programs or the rights and obligations of recipients thereof; or raise novel legal or policy issues arising out of legal mandates, the President’s priorities, or the principles set forth in this Executive order.”[1] Furthermore, a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) is expected to be decided upon in September 2019. Although the actual proposed rule was unavailable for review, to those of us that are familiar with the industry, rules for LMSA and NFMSA have been anticipated for some time.  However, this is the first indication of movement outside the Department of Health and Human Services.

This posting by the Office of Management and Budget is the first step to development of regulation and is not yet a proposed rule. This publication is simply notification that CMS is currently in the process of putting together a proposed rule.  Once the draft is prepared it will be published in the Federal Register and after publication any interested parties in the rule will be provided 60 days to comment.  Once the period for comment closes, CMS will decide whether to proceed with development of the regulation.

It is unclear as to whether CMS will seek ongoing feedback from interested stakeholders. As of this date, no Town Hall has been scheduled.

Gordon & Rees has previously written official comments for prior notices of proposed rulemaking and is equipped to do so on behalf of interested stakeholders. If you are interested in this service, please contact us. As this process develops Gordon & Rees will continue to keep you apprised of the progress.

[1] Department of Management and Budget FAQs. https://www.reginfo.gov/public/jsp/Utilities/faq.myjsp

Filed under CMS, In the News, Legislation, LMSA, Medicare Secondary Payer

New Conditional Payment Portal Functionality Expected in January

By on November 20, 2018
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Long awaited improvements to the Medicare conditional payment reimbursement process may be available at the start of the new year, according to a November 19 alert from The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Back in August, CMS announced the Medicare Secondary Payment Recovery Portal (MSPRP) would offer enhanced functionality in 2019, including the ability for authorized Non-Group Health Plan (NCHP) users to self-report leads on liability, auto, no-fault or workers’ compensation cases. According to the alert, this functionality will be effective on January 7, 2019.  CMS is hosting a webinar regarding this enhancement on December 18th, 2018 at 1:00PM EST. A link to register for this webinar can be found here>>CMS 12.18.18 Webinar Registration

The ability to self-report leads will generate Medicare Conditional Payment information that authorized parties can review and/or dispute in accord with their reimbursement obligations under the Medicare Secondary Payer laws. Such enhanced portal functionality should eliminate several weeks of wait time per claim in obtaining Medicare conditional payment information.

This enhancement was initially introduced as a possible improvement for 2019 during a webinar CMS conducted on August 16. A second enhancement allowing online payment of Medicare conditional payments to the MSPRP was also referenced at that time as a possible improvement for 2019. The November 19 CMS alert makes reference to online payment.

Stay tuned to the Gordon & Rees MSPulse for a summary of the December webinar. In the meantime, please contact us should you have any questions.

Filed under CMS, In the News, Medicare, Medicare Secondary Payer, Medicare Set Aside, Uncategorized

CMS Low Dollar Recovery Threshold Remains $750 for 2019

By on November 20, 2018
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There will be no change in the low dollar threshold for Medicare conditional payment reimbursement in 2019. The SMART (Strengthening Medicare And Repaying Taxpayers) Act of 2012 serves to avoid governmental waste by setting an annual amount in which the costs associated with reimbursement outweigh the benefits. The SMART Act provides that the Secretary must calculate and publish not later than November 15th a low dollar threshold amount applicable in the following year for settlements, judgments, awards or other payments in which Medicare Conditional Payment reimbursement need not be reimbursed given the costs associated with recovery. This threshold corresponds also to the $750 threshold for Medicare Mandatory Insurer Section 111 reporting requirement.

On Friday, November 15th, The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released their updated Computation of Annual Recovery Thresholds for Non-Group Health Plans.  Below are the Agency’s findings:

  • The 2019 reporting threshold remains $750 for no-fault, workers’ compensation and liability cases.
  • The estimated cost to process any individual case is $297
  • The average Medicare conditional payment demand amount for settlements of $500 is $368 (74%)
  • The average Medicare conditional payment demand amount for settlements around $750 is $518 (69%)

These metrics once again demonstrate exceedingly high percentages of cost versus recovery for low dollar settlements. The SMART Act applies a common sense approach to recovery efforts, given such costs associated with reimbursement and the interest of avoiding wasteful spending of government money,. The complete notice can be found in the link here>> CMS Computation-of-Annual-Recovery-Thresholds-for-NGHP–2019.pd

Should you have any questions regarding the above or need any Medicare compliance assistance, please do not hesitate to contact Gordon & Rees Medicare Compliance Group.

Filed under CMS, In the News, Medicare, Medicare Conditional Payment, Medicare Set Aside

IDS Property Casualty Insurance Class Certification Reversed, Remanded

By on October 30, 2018
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As previously reported, the Third District Court of Appeal for the State of Florida recently reversed and remanded the class action certification for MSPA Claims 1, LLC v. Ocean Harbor. On October 24, 2018, the same Court reversed and remanded the only other certified class action suit brought by MSPA Claims 1, LLC.

Citing Ocean Harbor specifically, the Third District Court again opined that in this case, MSPA has failed to establish that common issues predominate over individual issues. Applying the same rationale as Ocean Harbor, the Court noted “to quantify the claims of the putative class members will require a comprehensive and distinct analysis of each underlying PIP claim and automobile accident…Plainly this is one of those cases where merely proving entitlement to reimbursement from IDS for payments made by Florida Healthcare Plus on behalf of MA., in no way proves the cases of the other class members.” IDS Prop. Cas. Ins. Co. v. MSPA Claims 1, LLC, 2018 Fla. App. LEXIS 15107

The Court then went on to reverse as well on the alternate ground of standing. Harkening back to MSPA Claims 1, LLC. v United Auto. Ins. Co., 204  F. Supp. 3d 1342, 1345 (S.D. Fla. 2016), the Court ruled that the approvals of assignment did not occur until after the initial complaint had been filed. The parties in question did not assign benefits until June 1, 2016 as a part of a settlement agreement. However, MSPA filed its amended complaint on March 8, 2016, several months prior to the Receiver’s approval. As previously found, standing must exist at the inception of a case. As IDS had based its attack on standing on validity of the assignment, standing was not present[1].

As such, the Court reversed and remanded for proceedings consistent with the opinion.

It would be remiss to not point out that this was MSP Recovery’s only other certified class action suit. With its reversal and remand, the future of these class action proceedings seems dimmer and dimmer, at least in the Third District Court of Appeal for the State of Florida.

 

[1] The court does note that this case does differ from MSP Recovery LLC v. Allstate Insurance Co., 835 F. 3d 1351 (11th Circ. 2016) which similarly argued lack of standing. In that IDS argued that MSPA’s private cause of action against IDS was barred by the federal anti-assignment statue. This was rejected by the Eleventh Circuit.

Filed under In the News, Legislation, Medicare, Medicare Advantage Plans, Medicare Secondary Payer

MSPA Claims 1 LLC v. Infinity Auto – No Collection Without Recollection

By on October 30, 2018
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For MSP Recovery LLC, it apparently takes more than two things to make a thing go right. Collecting fees is now out of sight.

The United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, dismissed yet another MSP Recovery LLC subsidiary claim with prejudice. It seems this time around the Plaintiffs could not establish that MSPA Claims 1, a subsidiary of MSP Recovery, was in fact acting on behalf of the now defunct Florida Healthcare Plus, Inc. Medicare Advantage Organization, despite producing affidavits speaking to the relationship from top brass within both companies.  The assignment was allegedly first with La Ley Recovery Systems prior to MSPA Claims 1.

On October 19, 2018, The Southern District of Florida, ruled in the case of MSPA Claims 1, LLC v. Infinity Auto Ins. Co., granting summary judgment. The Court also dismissed the case with prejudice.

In the present case, the Court allowed over sixteen months of discovery to go forward with this claim. Despite this timeframe, Plaintiff relied on only two affidavits to establish standing (based upon assignment from FHCP to La Ley Recovery) for the claim: the first of the Defense’s own attorney John. H. Ruiz and the second of Susan Molina, CEO of FHCP. Putting aside that it is generally improper for a lawyer in a case to testify as to his legal opinion regarding facts in the case[1], the Court found that the testimony about conversations between Attorney Ruiz and Susan Molina was “merely Mr. Ruiz’s mental impression following conversations…” that “does not lay the necessary factual predicate for Mr. Ruiz’s lay opinion testimony.”[2]

The Court then went on to examine the Affidavit of Susan Molina, who essentially attested to not remembering specific conversations with John Ruiz and did not specifically recall approving assignment to La Ley Recovery. The Court very clearly points out what is missing from the affidavit: a positive statement that express assignment was given to La Ley Recovery.

After that analysis, the Court found in a very familiar fashion, that the Plaintiff lacked standing even despite the Plaintiff’s position that such was demonstrated via the settlement agreement between FHCP and its liquidators. As has been held in several previous MSP Recovery cases, a settlement agreement cannot retroactively establish standing after a case is filed. As no assignment was found and standing was lacking, the Court dismissed the matter with prejudice.

 

[1] Hickman v. Taylor, 329 U.S. 495, 67 S Ct. 385, 394, 91 L Ed. 451 (1947)

[2] MSAP Claims 1, LLC v. Infinity Auto Ins. Co., 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 181446

Filed under In the News, Legislation, Medicare, Medicare Advantage Plans, Medicare Secondary Payer

CMS Issues New WCMSA Reference Guide and Section 111 NGHP User Guide

By on October 10, 2018
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As of October 1, 2018, CMS has issued updated versions of both the WCMSA Reference Guide and the Section 111 NGHP User Guide.

 WCMSA Reference Guide Version 2.8:

The updates found in version 2.8 of the Workers’ Compensation Medicare Set-Aside Reference Guide are as follows:

– As a part of an ongoing process, CMS must discontinue use of Social Security Number-based Medicare identifiers and distribute new randomly selected Medicare identification numbers to all beneficiaries, referred to as Medicare Beneficiary Identifiers (MBIs). Accordingly, all fields formerly labeled HICN are now labeled “Medicare ID” and will accept either an individual’s HICN or MBI (if assigned)

– The link to the CDC Life Expectancy Table has been updated. This link can be found at bullet #7 of Chapter 10.3 of the Reference Guide.

– The Verifying Jurisdiction and Calculation Method for medical reviews has been updated. This information can be found in Tables 9-1 and 9-2 in Chapter 9.4.4 of the Reference Guide.

– Version 2.8 of the WCMSA Reference Guide can be found here.

NGHP Section 111 User Guide Version 5.4:

The updates found in version 5.4 of the Section 111 Non-Group Health Plan User Guide are as follows:

– To meet Section 111 requirements, a Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) disclosure statement has been added to this guide. This disclosure can be found on page iii of the User Guide.

– The contact protocol for the Section 111 data exchange escalation process has been updated. This escalation process can be found in Sect. 8.2 of the User Guide and in short, provides the contact information for the newly appointed EDI Director.

– In order to ensure updates are applied to recovery cases appropriately, RREs are asked to submit the policy number uniformly with a consistent format. When reporting updates enter the policy number exactly as it is entered on the original submission whether blank, zeros, or a full policy number. This requirement is discussed in greater detail in Sect. 6.6.5 of the User Guide

– The excluded and no-fault excluded ICD-10 diagnosis codes have been updated for 2019. These codes can be found in Table I-1 and J-1 of Chapter V of the User Guide.

– The placement of the decimal point in the excluded ICD-10 “Y codes” of table I-1 has been corrected. For example, in version 5.3 of the User Guide these codes were written as Y921.10 whereas it should be written Y92.110. These codes are now written correctly.

Each chapter of the Section 111 NGHP User Guide, version 5.4 can be found here.

Gordon & Rees remains committed to bringing you the most up to date information regarding all things Medicare Secondary Payer related. Please do not hesitate to contact us should you have any questions about the newest versions of these reference guides.

 

Filed under CMS, In the News, Medicare, Medicare Secondary Payer, Medicare Set Aside

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