Synergy’s blog brings you the industry’s foremost thought leadership InSights on matters of healthcare lien resolution and Medicare Secondary Payer Compliance. Visit often to discover helpful InSights on important lien resolution compliance issues.
Applying Collateral Source Statutes to ERISA after Wurtz The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit rendered a major decision on July 31, 2014 holding that New York’s anti-subrogation statute is “saved” from ERISA preemption. (Wurtz v. The Rawlings Company, — F.3d—, 2014 WL 3746801). This ruling holds that neither the express preemption found […]
Can a Third Party Hold Settlement Funds Until Medicare Issues a Final Demand? The Northern District of Indiana thinks it is a jury question as to whether or not the third party carrier acted reasonably in holding settlement funds until Medicare’s Final Demand had been issued (Dolgos v. Libery Mutual Ins. Co., 2013 U.S. Dist. […]
This case involved a Medicare beneficiary who was injured as a result of medical malpractice. When the plaintiff’s attorney settled the personal injury action, Medicare presented a Final Demand of approximately $91,000. The plaintiff’s attorney paid the Final Demand to avoid interest and then engaged Synergy Lien Resolution Services to appeal the amount of the Final […]
This case involved a serious slip and fall accident that happened on a cruise ship while it was at sea. The plaintiff suffered significant injures, incurring medical damages in excess of $540,000. The injured plaintiff engaged a seasoned trial attorney, but due to liability issues the plaintiff only received a fraction of the case value. Following […]
Maryland Suspends Attorney for Failure to Repay Healthcare Reimbursement Claim Failing to deal with the subrogation/reimbursement claims of health insurance carriers has proven to be a possible career ending mistake for one Maryland personal injury attorney. In the September 2013 Maryland Court of Appeals’ review of the disciplinary ruling of Attorney Grievance Commission of Maryland […]
The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) is a federal law that sets minimum standards for most voluntarily established pension and health plans in private industry to provide protection for individuals in these plans. The United States District Court for the District of Arizona issued an order in Blood Systems, Inc. v. Roesler, […]
By: Synergy’s Director of Lien Resolution The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) is a federal law that sets minimum standards for most voluntarily established pension and health plans in private industry to provide protection for individuals in these plans. As every plaintiff’s attorney knows, the rights of self-funded ERISA qualified plans are […]
On March 17, 2014 the trial court in the infamous U.S. Airways v McCutchen entered an order allowing Mr. McCutchen to amend his answer to include affirmative defenses and a counter-claim. The court allowed this unusually late amendment to pleadings as result of U.S. Airways’s failure to produce the Master Plan Document (MPD) until just […]
Unfortunately, as part of the budget signed by President Obama on the 26th of December (Merry Xmas), a legislative fix for Ahlborn was made law. Now, Medicaid liens are like Medicare liens in the sense that they are super liens. Medicaid will be able to assert its lien against the entirety of the settlement instead […]