Is Your Law Firm Partnering With the Right Consultant for Lien Resolution Services?
There are a myriad of benefits when law firms outsource lien resolution services.
CUTTING EDGE INDUSTRY THOUGHT LEADERSHIP INSIGHTS
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.
Lien Existence & Ethics, Redefined
Some of the most frustrating and murky issues facing attorneys representing injured clients stem from alleged “liens” against settlement proceeds. The Florida Bar’s position on these issues, and the limited laws delineating them, have been ever-shifting and evolving. Ethical Obligation to Protect Liens One constant in this otherwise uncertain area, is this: Attorneys representing injured […]
Plaintiff firm settles with the U.S. Government for inadequately addressing and repaying Medicare Conditional Payments.
On June 18, 2018, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania announced a recently concluded settlement with a plaintiff firm involving the repayment of Medicare Conditional Payments. The government’s investigation arose under the Medicare Secondary Payer provisions of the Social Security Act, which authorizes Medicare, as a secondary payer, […]
TOP 50 MOST UNREASONABLE HOSPITAL LIENS
Increasingly trial attorneys are discovering that settlement of a personal injury or wrongful death claim with the tortfeasor can be the beginning not the end of negotiations or even litigation. Once settlement funds are received, the often-protracted lien resolution process begins, especially hospital liens. Hospitals typically demand reimbursement of their full, undiscounted list prices for […]
Medicare Lien Surprise: Don’t Ever Rely on a Conditional Payment Letter
Synergy’s lien resolution group has seen many cases like this one, where attorneys settle a case based on the assumption that they know the final Medicare lien amount.
Ahlborn is Alive & Well
Since the landmark decision by the US Supreme Court in Arkansas Department of Health and Human Services v. Ahlborn in 2006, state Medicaid agencies have grappled with how to recover monies spent for injury related care through their third party liability statutes without violating the Ahlborn decision. Many states continued to apply third party recover […]
Limitations on Hospital/Provider Liens When the Plaintiff is on Medicare
One of the most difficult issues trial counsel must resolve involves addressing hospitals/providers liens for Medicare clients. Recently the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), via the Medicare Learning Network (MLN), released policy memo SE17018 which provides excellent and concise answers to most of these issues. This memo addresses when a hospital/provider should bill, […]
Supreme Court Decides Nevils: FEHBA Subro – “Shall Supersede and Preempt any State or Local law”
On April 18, 2017 in Coventry Health Care Of Mo., Inc. V. Nevils the United States Supreme Court held that the subrogation/reimbursement plan language contained in the health insurance contracts of Federal Employee Health Benefit plans (FEHBA) preempted state law. This decision by the Supreme Court puts to rest over a decade of uncertainty in […]
Supreme Court Rejects Change in Lien Res. Outsourcing
After nearly five years, on October 6, 2016, the Florida Supreme Court issued Opinion SC16-104 and declined to make any change to the existing Rules Regulating the Florida Bar in relation to lien resolution outsourcing. As Florida’s trial attorneys know, the issue of whether there was a need for a change in the existing rules […]