If you are covered by Medicare health insurance, then you need to be aware of a change in the reporting guidelines which affect your ability to recover for your injury following an automobile accident while protecting your Medicare coverage.
New Medicare reporting guidelines require attorneys, insurers and plaintiffs to report any personal injury settlement or judgment to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in cases where Medicare has made payments or could make future payments for care related to the injury alleged in the claim. Failure to do so could result not only in CMS placing a lien on the award for Medicare reimbursement, but also fines of up to $1,000 per day.
Failure to Follow this Reporting Requirement Could Void the Injured Person’s Medicare Coverage
More importantly, failure to follow this reporting requirement could void the injured person’s Medicare coverage. Since most people on Medicare are dependent on this coverage to receive medical care, the harsh effect of the coverage being voided is clear.
Essentially, this means that Medicare has enacted regulations which will require mandatory consideration of its interests when a Medicare beneficiary (or someone likely to be a Medicare beneficiary within 30 months) settles their auto accident case for an amount over certain thresholds.
For now, the threshold is fairly high (settlements of $100,000 or more) but the thresholds will begin dropping soon ($50,000 as of 7/1/12; $25,000 as of 10/1/12; etc.). These reporting guidelines apply whether you hire a lawyer or not.
So what does this mean for you?
If you are covered by Medicare and you are involved in an automobile accident, you are at risk of losing your future Medicare coverage if you do not get proper legal advice. Therefore, it is crucial that you hire a lawyer to help you with your claim, whether you hire the Joye Law Firm or someone else. Please contact our office for a free consultation at (888)324-3100 or fill out the claim form on this website. For more details about previous results obtained on behalf of seriously injured persons by our law firm, please visit www.joyelawfirm.com and click on “our results.”
