BY JANICE SKILJO HARIS — In my upcoming column on WorkCompCentral, I identify MEDLink’s strategy for attacking Worker’s Compensation issues with Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the importance of procuring honest and cost-effective Medicare Set-Asides (MSAs). A key strategy for facilitating settlement in a proactive and cost-effective manner is utilizing the full range of the parties involved, such as lawyers, employers, and claims agents alike. Through this technique you can gain a wider scope of professional insight, allowing for a more thorough approach and satisfying end result.

Another simple way to ease to approval process of your MSA is to start early. It may seem obvious that preparing your proposal ahead of time, before settlement begins, is better than waiting until the last minute. However, you would be surprised to know that this is not always the case. By taking control of your WCMSA proposal and propelling it forward, you can cut down the time it takes for approval in the long run.

After preparing several hundred MSAs and working through the Medicare CMS system, it is evident to us that Medicare will continue to stealthily make policy changes that, to date, have increased MSA costs. Because of this, it is imperative to conduct research to stay current with CMS’ guidelines and practices. By dedicating time to discovering these constantly changing loopholes and combining the insights and strategic approaches of all parties we can continue to allocate reasonable and necessary MSAs and alleviate costs.

In preparation for the Making Workers’ Comp Work conference next week in San Francisco, consider the following:

1) To protect the parties and Medicare CMS, did you know that not all C&R settlements require a formal MSA but should consider CMS?

2) Have you considered that the parties could obtain a second opinion MSA if the initial MSA is not realistic?

3) Have you considered Zero MSA as a possible option?

Medicare and the CMS system are constantly changing.  Join me at the conference and learn about the importance of strategy and proactive planning for settlement and the MSA.