On October 30th, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) held an informational webinar entitled WCMSA Electronic Attestation Enhancement Webinar.
CMS hosted this webinar to discuss recent enhancements to the Workers’ Compensation Medicare Set-Aside Portal (WCMSAP). CMS will now allow Medicare beneficiaries (or their representatives) to submit their required annual attestations electronically for approved WCMSAs through the WCMSAP. Up until recently, the administrator had to submit these filings via mail. In the bigger picture, CMS’ webinar was the agency’s latest effort to simplify and improve WCMSA self-administration.
These important updates, along with highlights from its October 30th webinar, are outlined as follows:
New: WCMSA self-administrators can now submit their annual “attestations” electronically
Leading up to this webinar, CMS in early October CMS issued two important updates regarding the required filing of annual WCMSA administration “attestation” forms by the WCMSA administrator.[1]
First, CMS announced that it will now allow the WCMSA administrator to submit annual attestations electronically via its WCMSAP. Second, shortly thereafter, CMS released an updated Self-Administration Toolkit for Workers’ Compensation Medicare Set-Aside Arrangements to include instructions on how WCMSA self-administrators can access the WCMSAP to submit the attestations electronically. Review our recent articles on the WCMSAP User Guide and the WCMSA Self-Administration Toolkit for a more detailed overview of these updates.
Webinar – Highlights
In conjunction with these updates, CMS held its webinar on October 30 to address how WCMSA self-administrators can now use the new WCMSAP functionality to submit their required yearly attestations electronically.
The main highlights discussed by CMS can be broken down as follows:
Accessing the WCMSAP
Much of the webinar focused on a claimant logging on to their MyMedicare.gov account as their gateway to CMS’ updated WCMSAP. After logging onto their MyMedicare.gov account, an individual claimant, or their designee, can submit electronic attestations if they are the designated administrator; upload associated documentation; view other associated documents as well as attestations on their claims; and view their MSA spend and balance. It should be noted, that where the claimant has designated a party to administer the account on their behalf, the claimant will not have the ability to submit attestations.
Web-based attestation filing
As part of this process, CMS has created a web-based form for filing attestations that is an alternative to the traditional use of paper attestations. CMS demonstrated the new electronic form, and it is a single page requiring an individual to type into the website the same information provided on the paper form. The submitter is then prompted twice to ensure they wish to proceed while also providing the opportunity to submit additional documentation. CMS was clear that the electronic submission is not required. Instead, it is simply an alternate option to submitting attestations via mail.
Claimants who are not on Medicare
One item to note are claimants who have WCMSA accounts but are not Medicare beneficiaries. These individuals, since they are not Medicare beneficiaries, cannot set up a MyMedicare.gov account, so they are not able to use that as a gateway to the WCMSAP. CMS addresses this situation in Sections 4.1 and 4.13 of the updated WCMSAP User Guide by allowing parties who CMS considers as having a reasonable expectation of becoming a Medicare beneficiary within 30 months to set-up an individual account directly with the WCMSAP.
CMS continues to improve WCMSA self-administration
Overall, CMS’ webinar provided helpful information on its new WCMSAP attestation filing functionality and is in keeping with CMS’ larger efforts over the past few years to simplify and improve WCMSA self-administration. A key resource in this regard is CMS’ Self Administration Toolkit. The Toolkit is a helpful and user-friendly instructional guide addressing several important items related to WCMSA self-administration, such as setting up a WCMSA bank account, WCMSA funding, how the WCMSA can be used, what to tell healthcare providers, reviewing and paying bills, keeping records, attestations, and addressing inheritance.
CMS’ trend toward simplifying self-administration now continues with the agency allowing the annual attestations to be filed electronically through the WCMSAP. Through this welcomed update, CMS has sensibly made it easier for claimants to track, manage, and monitor their own case without necessarily having to deal with the oversight and costs associated with involving a third-party administrator.
Looking ahead, as part of CMS’ updating the agency will be holding another webinar on November 6th focused on the electronic attestation for professional administrators.
Please do not hesitate to contact us if you would like additional information or assistance with determining the ideal type of administration for your claim. In the interim please contact the author if you have any questions.
[1] As part of CMS’ WCMSA process, regardless of how the WCMSA account is administered (i.e. self-administration or professional administration) the WCMSA administrator must submit a yearly “attestation” filing. Through the attestation, the administrator attests that all the payments from the WCMSA account were made for Medicare-covered expenses and related to the work-related injury, illness, or disease. See, WCMSA Reference Guide 3.0, Section 17.5