5-31-2011; More changes to report with regard to Medicare and a growing whirlwind of new information

As reported in the last weeks, Medicare updates abound.

The most recent update confirmed that MSPRC (Medicare Secondary Payer Recovery Contractor) has issued an alert on the Rights and Responsibilities and Demand Letters to confirm that they have been temporarily suspended while these letters are under review. The MSPRC is still working cases and the rights and responsibilities and/or demand letters are to be mailed out once appropriate revisions have been made. This affects cases submitted to the MSPRC nationally so if you are waiting for some response be aware of the following:

•           Issuance of Rights and responsibilities letters                 None are being issued at this time

•           Post settlement Appeals/Waivers                                   None are being issued at this time

•           Final demands                                                              None are being issued at this time

•           Rights and responsibilities issued prior to suspension    Conditional payment will continue through process and will be issued

•           Rights and resp. not issued prior to suspension             Conditional payment process stopped

This would appear to be a change in response to the May 9th Federal District Court ruling in Arizona regarding Haro v. Sebelius (CV 09-134 TUC DCB Fed. D. Az.. We will provide more details as they are disseminated.

Please feel free to contact Shawn R. Biery, J.D., M.S.S.C. at sbiery@keefe-law.com with any questions regarding Medicare Set-Aside issues.