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Defense counsel made a motion in limine to preclude plaintiff from offering expert witness testimony based on the contention that plaintiff’s failure to disclose expert information was unreasonable. The trial court agreed, and that decision was upheld on appeal. The Third District reasoned that while C.C.P. §2034.300 did not mandate exclusion of plaintiff’s expert testimony because the defendant did not timely comply with the disclosure date, there is nothing in C.C.P. §2034.300 that would preclude the court from exercising its discretion to exclude the testimony based on the plaintiff’s “egregious violation” of the exchange requirements.

ICD-10 Compliance, recently set to start on October 1, 2014, has now been PUSHED BAC, by the Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014 (PAMA) (Pub. L. No. 113-93), to October 1, 2015.  The Act provides that the Secretary may not adopt ICD-10 prior to October 1, 2015. Accordingly, the U.S. Department of Health and …

CMS Issues Proposed Hospital Inpatient Payment Regulation Proposed rule would strengthen tie between payment and quality improvement On April 30, CMS issued a proposed rule that would update FY 2015 Medicare payment policies and rates for inpatient stays at general acute care and long-term care hospitals (LTCHs). This rule builds on the Obama administration’s efforts through …

On April 1, 2014, President Obama signed into law the Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014. This new law prevents a scheduled payment reduction for physicians and other practitioners who treat Medicare patients from taking effect on April 1, 2014.

Video from a seminar entitled Proving the Value of Present and Future Medical Bills under Howell, Corenbaum and Dodd v. Cruz and How to Establish “Negotiated Rate Differentials” in Medicare, Kaiser and other Lien Cases presented by the Association of Defense Counsel of Northern California and Nevada.

Change in Reporting Threshold for Certain Liability Settlements, Judgments Awards, or Other Payments

As required by section 202 of the Strengthening Medicare and Repaying Tax Payers Act of 2012 (SMART Act), the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has reviewed the costs related to collecting data and determining the amount of Medicare’s recovery claim and has calculated a revised single threshold for physical trauma-based liability insurance settlements. (Note: This threshold does not apply to settlements for alleged ingestion, implantation or exposure cases.)

Our beloved Sadie was written up in In Touch magazine for her uncanny resemblance to the wise Yoda. We have a very pet friendly office as any visitor can tell you. Sadie’s just another wonderful (and furry) member of the family!

California appellate courts continue to impose limits on punitive damages. On August 29, a 10-1 limit on punitive damages was upheld. In Nickerson v. Stonebridge Life Ins. Co. (link below), the jury awarded plaintiff $35,000 in damages for bad faith insurance denial of benefits and $19 million in punitive damages. The trial court remitted the …

ALERT! We have recently experienced an increase in errors by COBC and/or MSPRC in processing information and conditional payment summaries related to liability claims and lawsuits.  Each entity blames the other for these mistakes.  Examples of errors include, but are not limited, to the following: COBC opening a file under the wrong name and/or Medicare …

Our Legal Assistant, April Yates, whom we have been delighted to have as a member of our team for two years, has just received notification TODAY that her score on the most recent Law School Admissions Test was 172 – placing her in the 99th percentile of all takers! April is an exceptional young woman …