Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Why must I provide the indemnity information?
A: Our firm must know a claimant's indemnity information in order to determine an appropriate MSA amount via the percentage approach. If you would like us to provide the percentage funding option in our opinion letter, please provide the previous indemnity rates with each case submission, even if the claimant no longer receives indemnity benefits. Alternatively, if indemnity information is unavailable, the claimant's average weekly wage will suffice.
Q: Why must I provide executed settlement documents even when CMS approval is not necessary?
A: CMS requests notification on all cases that create a Medicare Set-Aside account, regardless of whether or not the MSA was pre-approved. Therefore, in order to comply with CMS, we ask for executed settlement documents to forward to CMS once they become available.
Do you have a question about the Medicare Set-Aside process? Submit it to eddie@shdcolorado.com for a prompt answer!
New Firm Partner
Our firm recently partnered with Bernard A. Poskus, a prominent attorney specializing in Elder Law, Probate, Estate Planning, Medicare, Medicaid, and Litigation. While Mr. Poskus will not work directly with Medicare Set-Aside referrals, his name should become familiar as he is our firm's newest partner. Please click here to read more information on Mr. Poskus.
MSA Approval Update
The average time between our submission of Medicare Set-Aside proposals to CMS until approvals received last month exceeded 26 weeks. This timeframe shows improvement over the past six months, which averaged 32.43 weeks. (See the chart below for a graphical representation of CMS' improved timeline.) While CMS claims to make determinations within 45 to 60 days, our statistics show that their process takes significantly longer. However, the decreasing trend provides encouragement in that it may avoid delays during case settlements.
Please note, approval of our proposals may require slightly more time than our competitors' proposals because we advocate for the lowest MSA amount that CMS is willing to accept.
Although CMS' overall process is becoming more efficient, the average time for CMS to acknowledge receipt of our proposals last month approached 25 days, and this timeframe exceeds the average of approximately 19 days over the past six months.
Website Construction
Our website is currently under construction. We expect the final site to be live within several weeks. Once finished, the new site will offer helpful information, including, but not limited to:
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Important articles and news updates
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Attorney and Staff profiles
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Downloadable forms
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Useful links and other resources
We will send an announcement once the website becomes fully operational. In the mean time, the following forms are available for download by clicking below:
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Submission Form (MS Word format, to complete by directly typing)
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Submission Form (PDF format, to complete by hand writing)
We appreciate your patience and urge you to contact us with any questions!
Publication Update
We are in the process of updating our informative publication, "Incorporating Public Benefits into Successful Settlements." This extensive publication delves deep into explanations and interpretations about Medicare Set-Aside regulations and the overall MSA Process. To obtain a copy of our updated publication, please contact us via the information listed at the bottom of this page. In addition, we will post the full manual online once construction on our website is completed.
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