Recently, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana issued the Benoit v. Neustrom opinion. 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 55971 (decided April 17, 2013). Here, the parties sought approval that CMS' future interest could be fully satisfied by funding an MSA for less than full value of the Claimant's future medicals. The parties agreed to resolve a liability claim for a gross amount of $100,000. Defendant had an MSA allocation prepared, which concluded that the Claimant would be expected to incur between $277,758.62 to $333,267.02 in future injury-related care otherwise covered by Medicare. Additionally, Medicare had made conditional payments on the Claimant’s behalf totaling $2,777.88.
The Court, having previous experience addressing MSA related questions, looked to the 11th Circuit decision in Bradley v. Sebelius for guidance. 621 F.3d 1330 (11th Cir. 2010). Bradley was an allocation case under the MSP with respect to conditional payments, holding that CMS must respect a judicial allocation based on the merits of the case. Applying the logic that CMS’ recovery can be fully satisfied by identifying that portion of an award which is intended to compensate a Claimant for medical expenses (past and future), the Court agreed with the parties in that an MSA did not need to be fully funded to satisfy Medicare’s interest. It did, however, disagree with respect to the dollar amount of the MSA.
Instead of following a strict pro rata approach advocated by the Claimant, the Court instead calculated a ratio of the net settlement proceeds (after costs of procurement and conditional payments by CMS had been subtracted from the gross award of $100,000) against the mean MSA figure. That ratio of 18.2% was then applied to the net proceeds, leading the Court to conclude that an MSA totaling $10,138 would be an appropriate amount with which to satisfy Medicare’s future interest.
This case is yet another example in 2013 (building on recent cases such as Early and Sterrett) depicting that MSA issues cannot be ignored simply because the claim being resolved is a liability claim instead of a workers’ compensation claim. While the issue must be addressed, the opinions also display that a more sophisticated methodology must be applied which takes into account the inherent differences between liability and workers’ compensation claims. As such, MSAs in the liability context should rarely be funded for the full value of a claimant’s overall future costs of care otherwise covered by Medicare (as the claimant did not recovery 100 cents on the dollar for such damages). In applying the allocation logic previously utilized in Bradley for conditional payments, the Court has provided a reasonable and logical path for parties to follow in the short term, with CMS anticipated to provide guidance in 2013 in the form of a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking.
The DRI MSP Task Force will continue to follow these developments and provide you with practical means for incorporating this guidance into your practice.
