May 13, 2021 Rasa Fumagalli JD, MSCC, CMSP-F The conditional payment recovery process in a workers’ compensation claim is not always smooth. Although the workers’ compensation insurance carrier will generally resolve any conditional payments in an accepted claim, the injured employee and counsel may find themselves in receipt of a post-settlement conditional payment notice or…
April 15, 2021 Rasa Fumagalli JD, MSCC, CMSP-F Medicare Secondary Payer (MSP) compliance settlement terms utilized by defendants are often overly broad in nature. The recent opinion, Kupolati v. Village of Timber Creek Association, 2021 N.J. Super. Unpub. LEXIS 7 (App. Div. Jan. 5, 2021) and Abate v. Wal-Mart Stores, No. 1:17-cv-288-SPB, 2020 WL 7027481…
December 10, 2020 Rasa Fumagalli, JD, MSCC, CMSP-F The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently issued a press release announcing a steady decline in improper payments under the Medicare Fee-For-Service program over the past few years. The improper payment rate decreased to 6.27% in the fiscal year 2020, down from 7.25% in the…
July 9, 2020 By Jason D. Lazarus Medicare Secondary Payer Compliance for law firms when it comes to “futures” is all about risk mitigation. How do you properly and compliantly close a file when you represent a Medicare beneficiary? The biggest risk a trial lawyer faces when dealing with settlements for a Medicare beneficiary is…
April 29, 2020 United States of America vs. Carrigan & Anderson, PLLC, Stephen P. Carrigan: U.S. Attorney brings suit against personal injury lawyer and his firm over failing to pay back Medicare for conditional payments By Jason D. Lazarus, J.D., LL.M., MSCC, CSSC In yet another example of Medicare compliance-related issues, a Houston law firm…
April 9, 2020 By: Evelynn Passino One of the many practice points rarely taught in law school: your client may lose public benefits as a result of a recovery, and you have a duty, as their attorney, to discuss benefit preservation with them. That does not mean you have a duty to actually preserve their…
February 25, 2020 By Jason D. Lazarus, J.D., LL.M., MSCC, CSSC If you do not resolve Conditional Payments, DOJ might come knock on your firm’s door. When you do not take Medicare compliance very seriously at your firm, you might end up writing a check to the government like these four firms did: 1/8/2020: Philadelphia…
January 8, 2020 By: Jason D. Lazarus, J.D., LL.M., MSCC The Department of Justice (DOJ) is serious about and intent on enforcement of the Medicare Secondary Payer Act when it comes to conditional payments. There are now numerous examples of these actions being taken by the DOJ. In this instance, the case against a Philadelphia-based…
By Jason D. Lazarus, J.D., LL.M., MSCC The government takes its reimbursement rights seriously and is willing to pursue trial lawyers who ignore Medicare’s interest. On November 4th, 2019, The United States Attorney for the District of Maryland announced that a Baltimore-based law firm paid the United States $91,406.98 to resolve allegations that it failed…
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Request Consultation“Synergy is our guiding light for deferring our contingent legal fees and planning for retirement. The lawyers at Panter Panter & Sampedro, myself included, have been working with them for over ten years using different methods to defer comp and plan for retirement.”
Brett Panter
Panter, Panter & Sampedro
"I don't think I've directly said "thank you" for helping us with Bridgett’s case. We sent the reduced payment to Medicaid and called Bridgett's mom to tell her approximately how much money was going to be left for Bridgett and she broke down over the telephone. Given only $25k of insurance and a $850k medical bill from the hospital she didn't think Bridgett would ever see a penny."
Tom L. Copeland
Jeffrey Meldon & Associates, P.A.
The parties agree that a Medicare Set-Aside is needed, now what? In this month's webinar, presented by Synergy CEO, Jason D. Lazarus, you will learn about the process basics for setting up a set aside including MSA allocations, funding mechanisms for set-asides, post-settlement administration as well as an overview of the process to make sure you close the case compliantly.
