Looming Federal Shutdown Threatens Medicare WC Settlements

• A government shutdown would reduce staffing at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), including its Benefits Coordination & Recovery Center (BCRC).
• The BCRC is responsible for collecting and managing information about other health coverage a Medicare beneficiary may have, such as through an employer or workers’ compensation.
• That could lead to potential delays in processing and responding to inquiries about Medicare Secondary Payer recovery activities from liability, no-fault, and workers’ compensation insurers, though core Medicare and Medicaid payments would likely continue.
• The BCRC’s operations, which recover mistaken payments from non-Group Health Plans, are considered a funded activity that would continue, but with a reduced workforce and potentially slower response times for stakeholders.
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Oregon Mulls Changes to Coverage Responsibility Rules

• The Oregon Workers’ Compensation Division (WCD) recently proposed changes to its employer and insurer coverage responsibility rules to ensure timely revocation of self-insured employers who fail to replace expired security deposits and to implement legislation exempting school districts from posting these deposits.
• The proposed changes would require self-insured employers to replace an expired deposit within 15 days and would allow them to request a hearing within 10 days of a proposed revocation.
• Self-insured employers would have the right to request a hearing within 10 days of receiving notice of a proposed revocation of their certification due to an expired deposit.
• WCD said the changes will strengthen its ability to take timely action against self-insured employers who fail to meet their financial security obligations.
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Study Examines Occupational Health Disparities Across Groups

• Disparities in workplace safety are a significant contributor to racial and ethnic health disparities,according to a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
• The cross-sectional study,by academics at the University of Southern California and RAND, analyzed 15 years (2005-2019) of California workers’ compensation data.
• Addressing both occupational concentration and within-occupation disparities is essential for improving workplace safety and reducing health inequities among workers, according to the study’s authors.
• “The fact that risk differences persist even when comparing workers in the same jobs, particularly for Black and women workers, suggests that Black and Hispanic workers systematically face worse working conditions and riskier environments,” the study concluded.
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