The uncertain future of Medicare set-asides: Medicare set-aside requirements, which lay dormant for two decades, have recently been revived in the workers' comp arena. Personal injury cases are next, but plaintiff lawyers needn't panic. The law is on their side.

Trial, March, 2008 by Winslow, William L.

Since passage of the Medicare Secondary Payer Act (MSP) in 1980, Medicare has had a right to reimbursement of monies it paid for medical care rendered to an injury victim and to have any recovery for the victim's future medical expenses used first before Medicare secondary coverage applies. (1)

Until recently, plaintiff attorneys paid little attention to this right because the agency that runs Medicare, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)--part of the Department of Health and Human Services--did almost nothing to enforce it. But for years, Medicare has been hemorrhaging red ink, and Uncle Sam is now looking closely at the MSP to help stanch the flow.

Although enforcement efforts began nearly a decade ago, personal injury claimants...

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