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Moving toward settlement: Are you prepared?

Over the past several years, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have imposed stricter Medicare Set-Aside guidelines as part of its ongoing effort to preserve the Medicare trust fund.

By Rafael Gonzalez | Updated on August 27, 2014

Rafael Gonzalez is Vice President of Strategic Solutions at PMSI/Progressive Medical, soon to be known as Helios.

Over the past several years, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have imposed stricter Medicare Set-Aside (MSA) guidelines as part of its ongoing effort to preserve the Medicare trust fund. Combine this change with the rising cost of medical treatment and the outcome is often a noteworthy increase in reserves and settlement values. Because of this, cases are remaining open longer or not settling at all. In fact, research by the Workers’ Compensation Research Institute (WCRI) shows that injured workers disabled for longer than six months have less than a 50 percent chance of ever returning to their job. After a year, the chances that they will return to work drop to a mere 10 percent.

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