Medicare Advocacy and Recovery Coalition

Over the past year, I’ve been able to learn a lot about the Medicare Advocacy Recovery Coalition (MARC), an organization consisting of representatives from all over the workers’ comp industry – carriers, TPAs, comp service providers, attorneys, employers, and more.  Greg McKenna, Vice President and Counsel for Gallagher Bassett Services, invited me to attend a […]

The Medicare Advocacy Recovery Coalition (MARC) applauds the United States Senate for its bi-partisan letter to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), urging the Agency to implement promptly the Strengthening Medicare and Repaying Taxpayers (SMART) Act, signed into law on January 10, 2013.  Under the legislation, CMS by October 2013 was to have implemented an electronic “portal” for the exchange of […]

The Medicare Advocacy Recovery Coalition (MARC) applauds the Congress for protecting Medicaid beneficiary rights with the recent passing of H.R. 4302, (SGR Doc Fix). Section 211 of this important legislation included a provision deferring until October 2016 the implementation of section 202(b) of the Murray-Ryan Budget Agreement, which negatively altered the balance of Medicaid secondary […]

The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will officially merge the Coordination of Benefits and Medicare Secondary Payer Recovery teams into a single unit, which should save workers’ compensation attorneys several phone calls a year on conditional payment issues. CMS announced on Dec. 23 that it will launch the Benefits Coordination and Recovery Center […]

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on Thursday announced plans to seek comments on proposed rules to implement the first appeals process for insurers and self-insured employers targeted for recovery actions in workers’ compensation, liability and no-fault settlements to meet the requirements of the Strengthening Medicare and Repaying Taxpayers (SMART) Act of 2012. CMS […]

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Studies is seeking proposals on how it should penalize insurers who violate the agency’s claim-reporting requirements, and payers are responding that the agency should not penalize insurers who are making a good-faith effort to send the agency their data. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Studies issued an advance […]

WASHINGTON, Dec. 21, 2012 — The Medicare Advocacy Recovery Coalition (MARC) today applauded the United States Senate for passage of The Strengthening Medicare and Repaying Taxpayers (SMART) Act – H.R. 1063, now renumbered as H.R. 1845. Senators Ron Wyden (D-Or) and Rob Portman (R-Oh) introduced the legislation in the fall of 2011, and have been […]

WASHINGTON, Dec. 19, 2012 — The Medicare Advocacy Recovery Coalition (MARC) today applauded the U.S. House of Representatives for passage of The Strengthening Medicare and Repaying Taxpayers (SMART) Act – H.R. 1063. U.S. Representatives Dr. Tim Murphy (R-PA) and Ron Kind (D-WI) introduced the legislation in March 2011, and have been leading the bipartisan effort […]