Federal Government and Workers Comp Insurance
I have posted often in the last few weeks in reference to how and why the Federal Government has been pushing to enter more regulations on Workers Compensation insurance including 24-hour healthcare coverage and a federal insurance office.
I have not commented on how the Federal Government has affected almost all Workers Comp claims that have a settlement value of more than $25,000. A few years ago, the CMS (Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services) issued a regulation that all Workers Compensation settlements of more than $25,000 have to be APPROVED by their offices. This caused an incredible logjam on getting cases finalized.
There are at least 10 major companies that have entrepreneured the business of assisting claims offices in getting the CMS to approve the Workers Compensation settlements. I have assisted no less than 15 investment companies in examining this market as a place to invest large amounts of cash. This is one of the hot ancillary service marketing areas in Workers Compensation today.
The rejection rate was supposedly calculated by the CMS at 28%. The CMS even issued a recent guide on how to get the Medicare Set Asides (MSA’s) approved by their offices. I do not fault the CMS for being more involved as quite often there is an interfacing of Social Security/Medicare benefits and Workers Comp settlements.
The main reason I posted on this situation is to let all my blog and newsletter readers that the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IS ALREADY HEAVILY INVOLVED IN WORKERS COMP today. I have heard some of the Workers Comp pundits say that there is a long leap between the current Workers Comp system and a federalized one.
One does not have far to leap if one is already there. CMS’s MSAs are the route into Workers Compensation currently taken by the Federal Government.
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