P/C Insurer Rules on Medicare, Medicaid Liability Claims Delayed

Property/casualty insurers will have some extra time to comply with new Medicare and Medicaid liability claims reporting requirements.

The Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that it will delay the implementation of the Medicare Secondary Payer (MSP) mandatory reporting requirements for property/casualty insurers until Jan. 1, 2012 for liability claims that do not involve on-going medical responsibility.

Insurers welcomed the postponement until details of implementation can be worked out.

“We are pleased that CMS decided to push back the reporting deadline again until more specific guidelines can be provided on several outstanding issues,” said Peter Foley, American Insurance Association’s vice president for claims administration and chair of AIA’s MSP Task Force. “The insurance industry will comply with the requirements, but complete and correct information is needed so that the industry’s data can be assembled in the most useful way possible for CMS.”

In September, AIA sent a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius requesting a specific delay for a unique niche of liability claims for which little guidance has yet been issued.

“We welcome CMS’s recognition that there is a need for serious and continued dialogue on the many issues that are still unresolved in the application of Section 111 to these claims,” said Foley.

Several insurers have developed insurance programs to deal with the liability issues raised by the new reporting requirements.