By Guest Author B. Joshua Pettingill, MBA, MS, MSCC Funding a WCMSA with a structured settlement annuity has numerous advantages versus a lump sum funding. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) allows for a Workers’ Compensation Medicare Set-Aside (WCMSA) to be funded either with…
By Guest Author, Evelynn Passino, J.D. – Executive Director of Pooled Trust Services Any attorney handling personal injury or workers’ compensation cases should understand how important it is to protect a client’s government benefits. Among these benefits is Medicare, the health insurance plan offered by…
By Jason D. Lazarus, J.D., LL.M., MSCC, CSSC 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…
By Jason D. Lazarus, J.D., LL.M., MSCC, CSSC Late in the fall of 2018, the Office of Management and Budget issued a notification from the Department of Health and Human Services which oversees CMS of a proposed rule related to the Medicare Secondary Payer Act…
By Jason D. Lazarus, J.D., LL.M., MSCC, CSSC In yet another example of Medicare compliance related issues, a Houston law firm and its managing partner have been sued by the government for failing to pay back Medicare conditional payments. This is a unique situation though…
By Guest Author, Evelynn Passino, J.D. – Executive Director of Pooled Trust Services 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…
By Jason D. Lazarus, J.D., LL.M., MSCC, CSSC If you take nothing else from this, when you refer a case to another firm you need to make sure you have 3 things: 1) A written fee agreement; 2) A copy of the lawyer’s malpractice insurance…
By Guest Author, Evelynn Passino, J.D. – Executive Director of Pooled Trust Services Editor: Jason D. Lazarus, J.D., LL.M, MSCC, CSSC We hear the same thing from attorneys over and over: I secured a substantial recovery for my client, but I am concerned they…
By Guest Author, Evelynn Passino, J.D. – Executive Director of Pooled Trust Services Editor: Jason D. Lazarus, J.D., LL.M, MSCC, CSSC Last year we told you about how the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) impacted trust taxation and how clients could use a structured…
By Guest Author B. Joshua Pettingill, MBA, MS, MSCC Editor: Jason D. Lazarus, J.D., LL.M, MSCC, CSSC Introduction An inquiry that Synergy receives on a regular basis involves a Medicare-eligible claimant who has both a workers’ compensation and a third-party liability companion case. The third-party liability…
