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U.S. Healthcare Crisis Turnaround?

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Drs. & Hospitals Employers

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The Only Company with Compliant Solutions for All of You

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2007 Claim Denial & Overpayment Dispute

ERISA Appeal Seminar

 

07/28/2007 - 8 hours (8 am -12 pm & 1 pm - 5 pm)

 

Northside Hospital Interchange Building

 Classroom No. 419

5780 Peachtree Dunwoody Road, Suite 400

Atlanta, GA 30342 

Click here for Nearest Hotels

 

$299 - $600

Call: 630-736-2974

For more info: http://www.erisaclaim.com/seminars.htm

E-mail Your Questions to ERISAclaim@aol.com

 

How to Sign up?

 

               Our new 2007 ERISA Seminars can be enrolled by

 

1. Calling 630-736-2974

 

2. Download, fax a completed Registration Form to 630-736-1439

 

3. Online Secured registration.

 

Maximizing Healthcare Claim Reimbursement

Problem Oriented Appeals under ERISA

 

 

 

New 2007 ERISA Appeal Major Updates

ERISAclaim.com

04/06/2007

 

New Denial Crisis Demanding for New Solutions

for Your Reimbursement Problems

 

               In 2007, healthcare providers are facing unprecedented reimbursement crisis for healthcare claim denials, delays and "overpayment" recoupment as well as managed care PPO audits.

 

               Several years ago, most health care providers were seeing class actions against insurance companies and managed care entities by 950,000 physicians across USA after terribly failed political actions of "Patient's Bill of Rights" campaign for eight years, and desperately hoping to see some positive changes.  In last several year those class actions were either settled or dismissed by federal court.

 

               Do you see any major positive changes for your reimbursement?

 

               No!

 

               Now in 2007, the game is totally different.  More and more healthcare providers are the target of healthcare fraud lawsuits and investigations, PPO fraud and abuse audits, and more detrimentally harmful to financial bottom line for many healthcare providers and facilities. We have been experiencing more and more Volcano type of PPO audits and tornado type of overpayment recoupment crisis from payers withholding subsequent claim payments for millions of dollars, while no federal or state agency seemed to have jurisdictions for healthcare provider’s Katrina crying for justice, and while state government declined to intervene because of ERISA preemption and federal government refused to investigate because of alleged provider network contract agreement dispute, but healthcare providers on behalf of your patients received no payments or little payments for already approved claims as a result of "overpayment" recoupment by the payers.

 

Most Comprehensive Research and Analysis from US Supreme Court Rulings

 

               US supreme court unanimously ruled on June 21, 2004 that ERISA, a federal law, controls and governs your problems in managed care crisis if you want any money from the employer sponsored health plans.

 

Most Comprehensive, Advanced And Practical Appeal Letters For “Overpayment Recoupment” Due To PPO Audits And Medical Necessity As Well As Poor Documentation For Both Self-Funded ERISA Plan And Fully-Insured ERISA Plan

 

               Our new 2007 major updates provide you with most powerful protections and advanced appeal letters based on all of US Supreme Court recent rulings on managed care reimbursement, ERISA state law and PPO preemption, state law medical review preemption, and every type of practical arguments used by payers in withholding and recouping benefits payment from healthcare providers for those already approved benefits claims.

 

Latest Federal Court Ruling on Disallowing Health Plan Recovery or Recoupment against Healthcare Providers

 

               Two new federal court rulings on overpayment and state law prompted pay preemption relied upon most recent US Supreme Court rulings, in addition to our 2006 updates in this area.

 

Latest Federal Court Ruling on Definitive ERISA Preemption of State Prompt Pay Law.

 

               For years, federal and state regulators, legal and health care experts, health care providers and insurance companies are not certain if federal law ERISA preempts state Prompt Pay Laws, now federal court has ruled clearly that ERISA definitely preempts state prompt pay laws based on analysis of Supreme Court recent rulings.

 

97.96% Claims of United Healthcare Lawsuit in These Case Were ERISA Claims

 

               You will be also surprised to learn that in this provider lawsuit against United healthcare for wrongful denial of benefits claims.

 

"Plaintiffs lawsuit centers around 295 claims for services rendered by Schoedinger to patients covered by United healthcare plans. 289 of these claims qualify as Employee Welfare Benefit Plans under ERISA, and 6 involve non-ERISA plans.5 268 of the ERISA claims surround self-funded or self-insured health plans, in which the employers are financially liable for any benefits due and United serves only as the plan administrator and claims processor. 21 of the ERISA claims and all of the non-ERISA claims involve health plans that are fully insured by United. For these 27 claims, United is financially responsible for the benefits due to plan participants and serves as the plan administrator and claims processor."

 

No PPO Participation, No Checks to Non-PPO Providers, but ERISA Laws Protect You

 

               Because certain major payers are no longer sending reimbursement checks to healthcare providers who were not participating in the network, we have thoroughly researched federal law, ERISA, and developed a most powerful but straightforward action plan package based on specific federal ERISA regulation and requirements for healthcare providers to receive reimbursement checks directly from the insurance payers.

 

New Federal Government Guidelines on Filing Benefits Claims and Appeals

 

               Our 2007 major updates also include latest federal government, DOL, guidance on filing healthcare claims and appeals

 

New Federal Government Guidelines on Pre-Existing Condition Denials and Protections

 

               Our 2007 major updates also include latest federal government, DOL, guidance on filing healthcare claims, appeals for pre-existing condition protections.

 

               Our U.S. employment market in modern society, divorce, relocation and adoption as well as newborn babies have caused countless mysterious claim denials and delays due to mysterious “additional information requesting” by payers from patients and health care providers, but healthcare providers can never find out what exactly addition information the payers are looking for.  These confidential information is not about privacy compliance but pre-existing condition investigation, also governed by HIPAA, money part of HIPAA regulation.

 

               HIPAA pre-existing condition regulation was never fully understood by healthcare providers, as HIPAA is part of ERISA regulation.

 

               If you want to get paid quickly and accurately for 90% of your non-Medicare claims from patients obtained health insurance from employment in private sectors, you must understand and follow published federal government guidelines.

 

How to Order?

 

               Our new 2007 ERISA Appeal Updates can be ordered for $95 by those who have previously purchased our ERISA Appeal CD Book and Systems, and these updates cannot be separately purchased without prior purchase of ERISA Appeal CD Book and Systems for $450. However Our new 2007 ERISA Appeal Updates is free to those who have purchased ERISA Appeal CD Book and Systems in past 30 days from 04/07/2007.

 

               You may place your order from our website, www.ERISAclaim.com  on page of Appeal Books and Systems at http://www.erisaclaim.com/products.htm

 

               You may also call us at 630-736-2974 for a phone order or any questions

 

 

Vacca et al v. Trinitas Hospital

Nov. 14, 2006

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

EASTERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK

 

ERISA Does Not Authorize or Provide Remedy for
Plan's Overpayment Recoupment Actions
Against Healthcare Provider

 

We provide healthcare providers with in-house consulting and turn-keys programs
if you have big claims or a lot of  overpayment troubles

 

Call: 630-736-2974

Email: ERISAclaim@aol.com

www.ERISAclaim.com

 

Comments from other legal websites

Health Plan Lawsuit Watch (aishealth.com)

Health Care Managed Care Lawsuit Watch (Crowell & Moring LLP)

Health Plan Law - ERISA Group Health Plan Administration » 2006

"Plan’s Suit Against Hospital For Overpayment Dismissed Based Upon Knudson Analysis"

 

New 2006 Appeal Letters (10/13/2006)
 

ERISA Appeal for Overpayment Refund Request due to Medical Necessity and New PPO Hearing

 

In accordance with U.S. Supreme Court decision in Aetna Health Inc. v. Davila on 06/21/2004, “Medical necessity” dispute or denial and subsquent overpayment request, is an ERISA plan retrospective administrative remedy, and any non-ERISA “causes of action, brought to remedy only the denial of benefits under ERISA-regulated benefit plans, fall within the scope of, and are completely pre-empted by, ERISA §502(a)(1)(B),......"


New 2006
Appeal Letters (10/04/2006)

 

Due to the increasing Katrina style of  plan OverPayment Recoupment or Recovery denials, when plans withhold or reduce countless subsequent or future plan approved claim payments by alleging recoupment or recovery for previously overpaid claims to providers, we have added to our ERISA Appeal Book & System the most powerful ERISA appeal letter (OverPayment Recoupmet Appeal 2006) based on all applicable U.S. Supreme Court rulings, 2432 Coercive or Fraudulent Interference with ERISA Rights -- 29 U.S.C. 1141 and new ERISDA claim regulation as well as our practical experience and knowledge in ERISA appeal practice.

 

New 2006 Appeal Letters (09/28/2006)

 

We have added two new and updated appeal letters to our ERISA Appeal CD Book for increasing overpayment refund requests and disputes from health plans and commercial collection companies.

 

Our new and updated appeal letters are based on ERISA claim regulation on denials-adverse benefits determination, two new U.S. Supreme Court rulings in Aetna Health Inc. v. Davila on 06/21/2006  and Sereboff v. Mid Atlantic Medical Services on 05/15/200 as well as federal “Fair Debt Collection Practices Act”.

 

Pricing for copyrighted update letters: Free to anyone who purchased our ERISA Appeal CD Book in past 60 days (please email us for free password). $35 for anyone who purchased our ERISA Appeal CD Book prior to past 60 days. Who may use our online secured order page to pay for your order and password, then download the letters from our "Appeal Book & System Page". We do not sell these appeal letters separately from our ERISA Appeal CD Book ($450).

 

 

"Overpayment" Refund Request Response & Appeals

 © 2003 - 2004  Jin Zhou, ERISAclaim.com

 

 

Rx-1  $$$$$$$$$ERISA"Health Insurance Challenges: Buyer Beware" 3-3-04
Hearing, Senate Committee on Finance
$$$$$$$$$$  Rx-2

Are All Consultants Corrupt? (Fast Company)

950,000 MD's Settled With Aetna & Cigna on ERISA

 

 

Managed-Care "Over Payment" Crisis? What Does an Unanimous US Supreme Court Say?

 

On June 21, 2004, an unanimous US Supreme Court ruled that claim processing (retrospective negative benefits determination & recouping)  and denials of benefits under the employer-sponsored health plans, ERISA-regulated benefit plans, for both self-insured and fully-insured (through purchase of insurance) health plans, are completely governed by federal law ERISA, that supersedes and invalidates state laws.

 

ERISAclaim.com: "employer-sponsored group health plans" = "ERISA-regulated benefit plans", both self-insured and fully-insured (through purchase of insurance) health plans, (ERISA - Title 29, Chapter 18.  Sec. 1002.)

 

ERISAclaim.com - Supreme Court Managed Care ERISA Watch

Aetna Health Inc. v. Davila

06/21/04

Opinion of the Court

 

"Held: Respondents’ state causes of action fall within ERISA§502(a)(1)(B), and are therefore completely pre-empted by ERISA §502 and removable to federal court. Pp. 4–20."

 

"We hold that respondents’ causes of action, brought to remedy only the denial of benefits under ERISA-regulated benefit plans, fall within the scope of, and are completely pre-empted by, ERISA §502(a)(1)(B), and thus removable to federal district court. The judgment of the Court of Appeals is reversed, and the cases are remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.7 It is so ordered."

 

Is An Overpayment Refund Dispute with or from An ERISA Plan Payer Still an ERISA Claim, and Subject to ERISA Jurisdiction of Federal Court and ERISA Claim Regulation?

 

YES.

 

In PERALTA V HISPANIC BUSINESS, the Ninth Circuit has explained that common law claims do not “relate to” an ERISA plan when:

  1. “the “adjudication of the claim required no interpretation of the plan”,

  2. "no distribution of benefits”, and

  3. 3.no dispute regarding any benefits previously paid”.

 

Overpayment recoupment and overpayment refund request dispute are extremely popular today for both health-care providers and health-care plan payers as well as TPA or benefits recovery industry.

 

Medicare Secondary Payer: Improvements Needed to Enhance Debt, GAO Says (U.S. Government Accountability Office)

32 pages. Excerpt: "Last year, employer-sponsored group health plans ... were responsible for most of the nearly $183 million in outstanding Medicare secondary payer (MSP) debt. MSP debts arise when Medicare inadvertently pays for services that are subsequently determined to be the financial responsibility of another. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services ... administers Medicare with the assistance of about 50 contractors that, as part of their duties, are required to recover MSP debt."

 

Telecare Corp. v. Leavitt

(Fed. Cir. 2005)

ERISAclaim.com: "employer-sponsored group health plans" = "ERISA-regulated benefit plans", both self-insured and fully-insured (through purchase of insurance) health plans, (ERISA - Title 29, Chapter 18.  Sec. 1002.)

 

SLATER HEALTH CENTER, INC. v. UNITED STATES; BLUE CROSS & BLUE SHIELD OF RHODE ISLAND

 

MEDICARE OVERPAYMENTS REACHED NEARLY $20 BILLION IN 2003, NEW SURVEY FINDS (PharmExec)

 

CMS ANNOUNCES IMPROVED EFFORTS TO REDUCE MEDICARE PAYMENT ERROR RATES (12/13/2004, CMS Press Release)

 

Doctors sue to block $15 million repayment (Newark Star Ledger, NJ - Nov 29, 2004)

 

N.J. Medical Society Goes to Court To Block Recoupment of $15M in Alleged Overpayments (11/30/2004, AP via Insuarnce Journal)

"The Medical Society of New Jersey is seeking court action to prevent an insurance company from recouping $15 million in alleged overpayments to doctors.

 

The society is seeking an injunction against Horizon Blue Cross/Blue Shield, which claims that over two years it overpaid more than 600 doctors who performed heart procedures. The insurer has asked the physicians to give back the money by Nov. 30."

[doc] Press Release: Horizon Agrees To Temporarily Halt Efforts To Recover Money From State’s Cardiologists As A Result Of MSNJ Lawsuit, 12-09-2004

Assemblyman Neil Cohen's Letter (pdf)

 

Some health care costs unnecessary (APP.COM)

 

"In recent months, Horizon has seen a dramatic increase in the number of claims it is receiving, Marino said. New Jerseyans, he said, are receiving more health care yet, "the higher volume of services does not translate into improved quality."

GAO: HEALTH CARE Consultants’ Billing Advice May Lead to Improperly Paid Insurance Claims, June 2001

"In summary, the two workshops about which we raise issues in this report offered in-depth discussions of regulations that pertain to billing for evaluation and management health care services2 and compliance with health care laws and regulations. During the course of discussions at those workshops, certain advice was provided that is inconsistent with guidance provided by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General (OIG). Such advice could result in violations of both civil and criminal statutes. Specifically, certain consultants advocated not reporting or refunding overpayments received from insurance carriers after they were discovered. The consultants also encouraged the performance of tests and procedures that are not medically necessary to generate documentation in support of bills for evaluation and management services at a higher level of complexity than actually confronted during patients’ office visits. ...."

 

There has been a great deal of confusion as to what Law and regulation are the governing standards to comply or to follow, in the course of overpayment recoupment and in response to an overpayment refund request in the  managed care market. More dangerously, due to the lack of understanding and guidance from any authorities at the federal and state levels, health-care providers simply ignore such requests from the payers of health-care plans and their recovery agents. The insurance companies, health-care plan payers and managed care TPA's have started to simply withhold or deduct such "overpayment" from subsequent benefit reimbursements, asserting that overpayment is nondisputed and that the provider PPO agreement provision   has authorized the withholding of such nondisputed overpayment.

 

Providers may refuse to refund genuine overpayment, duplicate payment and reimbursement that the claimant is legally ineligible for, arguing that insurance companies have failed to reimburse other legitimate claims for the amount that is more than the overpayment requested from the insurance company.

 

Providers across the nation may also refuse to refund legitimate "overpayment" by arguing that they are the "innocent third parties" even for legitimate "overpayment" and ignoring to challenge, by appealing, the alleged overpayment that may have been incorrectly claimed by the plan as it might be retrospective claim denial but overpayment, which may foreclose any appeal rights the claimant or provider may have to these "denial-overpayment-no-appeal-then-overpayment" claims.

 

More and more frequently, TPA's or plans simply claim any retrospective claim denials as overpayments and demand from providers for unconditional refund or make recoupment from future claim payment deductions without affording appeal process as provided by applicable federal or state laws. One tragedy in this recoupment practice is the failure of recognition of benefits overpayment dispute as being always conducted as provider contract dispute as to appeal process.

 

Or even worse, this kind of dispute is moving into national fraud or anti-fraud initiative to gain advantage over cost savings movement.

 

 

"Class Actions" v. "New Strike Force"

 

HMOs Earn $10.2 Billion in 2003, Nearly Doubling Profits, According to Weiss Ratings; Blue Cross Blue Shield Plans Report 63% Jump in Earnings (BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 30, 2004

Medicare | Fraud, Abuse in Medicare and Medicaid Could Exceed Government Tracking Figures - Kaisernetwork.org

 

"In a statement, Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho), Chair of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, said, "In these tight budgetary times, it is important that every dollar that the federal government spends be well spent for its intended purpose ... But as we go after waste, fraud and abuse within Medicare, we need to make sure that we do not overreact."

Health care now prime target of federal False Claims Act (AM News)

"No place for fraud"

"There is no place for fraud in the practice of medicine," said AMA President-elect John C. Nelson, MD. "However, it is important that as the government investigates health care fraud, there is recognition, and separation, of inadvertent errors by health care professionals from real fraud."

 

In this regard, the entire nation has failed to see the dangerous impact of this new managed-care Holy War and unanticipated backslash to both sides of health care crisis. To providers, withholding true overpayment from payers has just started a war of recoupment from payers by deductions from your future payments and PPO Audits or fraud investigation, and once deduction recoupment is in operation, providers are guaranteed in losing end as payers are paying party with controls. To Plans or payers, unreasonable and tricky overpayment or recoupment will set off a national uncontrollable medical claim inflation by providers to "charge back" by increasing billing and charging to get even, "Discretionary Price Gauging"  or "Discretionary Medical Inflation", then every one in the healthcare system will be recouped: "GM says health care obligation hit $67.5 billion in 2003" (AP Wire, 03/11/2004)

ERISA is the governing Law for 80% of health-care claims in this country. ERISA specifically prescribes steps to be taken by every party to resolve overpayment disputes. The appeal process in accordance with ERISA claim regulation will help and protect every one involved in this type of overpayment recoupment practice and overpayment refund request.

 

The Root of U. S. Healthcare Crisis

Jin Zhou, ERISAclaim.com

The Hearing at Senate Committee on Finance on 3-3-04, [View Video "Health Insurance Challenges: Buyer Beware" 3-3-04
Hearing, Senate Committee on Finance
or Transcript (PDF) (KaiserNetwork.org)]  revealed