Municipalities and Medicare

Is a municipality immune from conditional payment liability under the Medicare Secondary Payer Act, 42 U.S.C. §1395y(b)(8)? No. This answer may surprise claims managers for public entities, but the law provides no protection whatsoever for municipalities. Not even federal government agencies are exempt. The rationale is simple: Medicare needs to be made whole. Social Security and Medicare represent 14 percent of the U.S. budget, and Medicare alone has an unfunded liability of $89 trillion. The unfunded liability is the difference between the benefits that have been promised to current and future retirees and what will be collected in dedicated taxes and Medicare premiums. Insufficient taxes are being collected, benefit payments exceed those taxes, and the shortfall must come from somewhere. Medicare has in its crosshairs defendants, both private and public, who must take on this burden,  reimbursing Medicare for conditional payments made for an alleged accident

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Featured News

  • Medicare Advocacy Recovery Coalition (MARC) Urges Beneficiaries to Support Legislative Reforms to Improve Medicare Secondary Payer (MSP) Program

    WASHINGTON, DC – February 22, 2023 – Established in 2008 with a mission to improve the Medicare Secondary Payer (MSP) program, the Medicare Advocacy Recovery Coalition (MARC) has unveiled a new website aimed at improving their critically important work.

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  • The PAID Act is Now the Law

    The Medicare Advocacy Recovery Coalition (MARC) thanks the Congress for passing the PAID Act (H.R. 1375, Section 1301 of H.R. 8900) on December 11, 2020.  The bill was brought to the House Floor and passed by voice vote on December 8, 2020. 

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  • Growing Number of Organizations Urge Congressional Support for the Paid Act

    In a letter addressed to Senators Tim Scott (R-SC) and Ben Cardin (D-MD), seventeen organizations and companies representing the Medicare Secondary Payer-regulated community urged Congress to pass the bipartisan Provide Accurate Information Directly (PAID) Act (S.1989/H.R.1375).

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