According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 22 million Americans are exposed to hazardous noise levels at work each year. Whether it’s sustained over time, like long-term proximity to sirens or loud machinery, or a one-time eve…
Effective management of the costs associated with liability and workers’ compensation claims in the U.S. must include assuring compliance with the requirements of Medicare. It’s a tricky system to navigate and a bit of a moving target, but our team o…
While the COVID-19 pandemic forced its way into every aspect of our lives for the past 18 months, it is not the only major ongoing health crisis. The opioid epidemic is still a real threat to our population despite being somewhat overshadowed in the …
Staying in the know about what’s happening with Medicare is critical, as the changes to regulations can have an impact on workers’ compensation for payers. Recently, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released Version 3.0 of the WCMSA…
Vivid memories of desperate nursing home residents in wheelchairs submerged waist-high in flood waters will forever be etched in our minds, especially during hurricane season. The shocking photos and tragic heat-related deaths of numerous skilled nur…
In my spare time, I enjoy reading and learning about the strangeness of the subatomic world. Quantum theory is difficult to understand and really hard to believe because it is counterintuitive and contrary to what we witness in reality. Quantum physi…
Over the past several months there have been direct communications from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) that liability Medicare set-aside arrangements (LMSAs) were on the horizon. In this blog we commented on a February announcemen…
On September 1, CMS hired Capitol Bridge, LLC to be the new review contractor for MSAs. According to CMS employees that we’ve spoken to, the transition is currently underway. The old contractor is staying on for an indeterminate amount of time to h…
CMS now permits some old MSAs to be re-approved Before this week, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) had a simple philosophy: Parties get one bite at the apple when it comes to CMS approval. However, on Monday, CMS released an upda…
For the past several years, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has been providing the industry with vague hints about liability Medicare set-aside arrangements (LMSAs). The absence of clarity left the liability community unable to…
Kathy Shostek, Vice President Healthcare Risk Management contributed a recent post about the management of drug samples in physician offices. The blog outlined the need for strategies for documentation and management of drug samples for reducing ri…
What if I told you that you could save $185,000 at no cost to you? No, I am not advertising for some late night TV infomercial where the offer is too good to be true. I am talking about the world of Medicare set-asides (MSA). It is well known that pr…
If you have been trying to keep up with the latest Medicare compliance changes, you might feel like you are watching the carnival vendor who used to say, “around and around it goes and where it stops nobody knows.” Fortunately, with these answers y…
Speculation is rife about what will happen with healthcare in 2014. Now one of the first predictors has publicly voiced its opinion. On Wednesday, I read with great interest that Moody's revised its outlook for the U.S. healthcare sector to negativ…
In any given week, a health care risk manager can find themselves involved in something new – investigating a patient injury, preparing a statement for a liability claim, educating staff on safety, assisting in designing risk transfer or financing …