CMS to hold WCMSA webinar on February 17, 2022 – several key WCMSA topics are on CMS's agenda

CMS’s webinar notice states as follows regarding the items to be discussed:  

CMS will be hosting a webinar to discuss a variety of WCMSA topics, including a summary of what’s new in Medicare set-asides and addressing questions related to the inclusion of treatments, application of state rules, re-reviews/amended reviews and more. The webinar format will be opening remarks and a presentation by CMS followed by a live question and answer session with representatives from CMS.

Based on the above description, CMS plans to address several aspects and items related to its WCMSA process. It would also seem reasonable to assume that CMS will also likely discuss its recent update to the WCMSA Reference Guide regarding non-submit WCMSAs and evidence-based medicine MSAs (EBMSAs), although this topic is not specifically mentioned in CMS’s description above.   As part of this recent update, the agency added a new section (Section 4.3) to the WCMSA Reference Guide entitled “The Use of Non-CMS-Approved Products to Address Future Medical Care.”  Regarding these allocations, CMS noted, in general, that they view these arrangements as “a potential attempt to shift the financial burden by improperly giving reasonable recognition to both medical expenses and income replacement” and indicated that they will deny medical services to the full amount of the settlement, minus procurement costs if these arrangements are used. See our recent article for additional information on this update.

If you are interested in attending CMS’s webinar, see CMS’s webinar notice for the applicable details and instructions. 

Finally, please note that key members of our WCMSA and policy teams will be attending this webinar, and we will release a webinar summary following this event. In the interim, feel free to contact the authors if you have any questions!

By Mark Popolizio and Sid Wong