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We Are Seeking New Strategic Partners

 

Our sister website, SleepApneaUSA.net, is finally here, and improving, updating every date.

 
 
  1. Dr. Jin Zhou will be speaking at World Research Group's "Summit on Medicare Advantage Reimbursement for Hospitals"

  2. E-mail Your Questions to ERISAclaim@aol.com

 

2007 Claim Denial & Overpayment Dispute

ERISA Appeal Seminar

 

Our New Seminar Schedules for 2007 & 2008

are Published on Seminar Page

 

$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

 

 

Dr. Jin Zhou Will Speak at This 2007 National Conference



 

World Research Group has also organized two in-depth workshops conducted by the industry’s thought leaders that will drill down into the solutions you need to prevent, reduce and overturn denials. Register for both to maximize your on-site learning experience.

 

Don’t Miss these Must-Attend, In-Depth Workshops!
bullet Mastering the Medicare & ERISA Appeal Process: Maximum Reimbursement through Compliance
ERISAclaim.COM
bulletThe Denial Diagnosis Tool Kit: A Claim-by-Claim Action Guide to Integrating Technical, Clinical, Legal and (sometimes) Political Perspectives in Managing Denials
ADVANCED REIMBURSEMENT MANAGEMENT

links to registration: http://worldrg.com/showConference.cfm?confcode=HW765
 

For a brochure, click here 

 
4th Annual Optimizing Managed Care Contracting for Hospitals
September 19 - 20, 2007
Chicago, IL
Register   •  
Download a Brochure
 

 

 

New 2007 ERISA Appeal Major Updates ($95)

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 ERISA 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).

 

ABATIE V ALTA HEALTH & LIFE

9th Cir. 08/15/2006

 

"In addition, this case requires us to consider how a court is to review an ERISA plan administrator’s decision when the procedure that produced the decision did not follow all statutory requirements. For the reasons that we will develop, we conclude that when a decision by an administrator utterly fails to follow applicable procedures, the administrator is not, in fact, exercising discretionary powers under the plan, and its decision should be subject to de novo review. Lesser irregularities, like the one in this case, do not remove the decision from abuse of discretion review, but rather should be factored into the calculus of whether the administrator abused its discretion.

 

.....We have held that an insurer that acts as both the plan administrator and the funding source for benefits operates under what may be termed a structural conflict of interest......."

ERISAclaim.com Comment:

For a healthcare provider  in appealing of denied medical benefits claims, he/she must be able to prove through the appeal that  "an administrator utterly fails to follow applicable procedures" in initial denial and subsequent appeal or reviews, among other things in a successful appeal practice. This is more important than arguing emotionally on medical merits of the claims, which most providers have been doing.

For more latest federal court cases impacting your claims denials and reimbursement, please visit our Managed Care Court Watch at ERISAclaim.com.

 

 

 

 

 

Fact Sheet - EBSA Achieves Total Monetary Results Exceeding $1.7 Billion

 (DOL, January 2006)

"Through its enforcement of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) is responsible for ensuring the integrity of the private employee benefit plan system in the United States. EBSA’s oversight authority extends to approximately 730,000 pension plans and another 6 million health and welfare plans. These plans cover approximately 150 million workers and their dependents and include assets of more than $4 trillion.......

 

Record $88.4 Million Restored to Workers through Informal Complaint Resolution

 

When workers experience a problem with an employee benefit plan, EBSA has proven effective in resolving their requests for assistance. In FY 2005, EBSA’s Benefits Advisors handled nearly 160,000 inquiries and recovered $88.4 million in benefits on behalf of workers and their families through informal resolution of individual complaints. Many of these inquiries were received via EBSA’s toll-free number: 1.866.444.EBSA (3272) and Web site: www.askebsa.dol.gov.

 

These inquiries are also a major source of enforcement leads. When EBSA becomes aware of repeated complaints with respect to a particular plan, employer, or service provider, or when there is information indicating a suspected fiduciary breach, the matter is referred for investigation. In FY 2005, 1,067 new investigations were opened as a result of referrals from Benefits Advisors."

U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to All Chiropractors

 

NO Appeal, No Lawsuit!!!

 

Amer Chiro Assn Inc vs. Leavitt, Michael O.

Released: 12/13/2005

"The jurisdictional question is more complicated. “No action against the United States, the [Secretary of Health and Human Services], or any officer or employee thereof shall be brought under [28 U.S.C. §] 1331 . . . to recover on any claim arising under” the Medicare Act. 42 U.S.C. §§ 405(h), 1395ii. Judicial review may be had only after the claim has been presented to the Secretary and administrative remedies have been exhausted. See 42 U.S.C. §§ 405(g), (h), 1395w-22(g)(5); Shalala v. Ill. Council on Long Term Care, Inc., 529 U.S. 1, 8-9 (2000); Heckler v. Ringer, 466 U.S. 602, 614-15 (1984); Weinberger v. Salfi, 422 U.S. 749, 763-64 (1975). This bar against § 1331 actions applies to all claims that have their “standing and substantive basis” in the Medicare Act. Ill. Council, 529 U.S. at 11, 17 (quoting Salfi, 422 U.S. at 761); see also Ringer, 466 U.S. at 615....."[page 5 of 8]

 

 

"To have such a claim heard, an enrollee could obtain the services of a chiropractor without first obtaining a referral. After the HMO refuses coverage because of the absence of a referral, the enrollee could file a grievance with the HMO, claiming that the referral requirement was illegal. See 42 U.S.C. § 1395w 22(g)(1)(A); 42 C.F.R. §§ 422.562(a)(1), .566(a). This would trigger the administrative process, at the end of which is judicial review of the Secretary’s final decision. See 42 U.S.C. § 1395w-22(g)(5); 42 C.F.R. § 422.612(a), (c). The chiropractor who provided the service could also mount an administrative challenge by “waiv[ing] any right to payment from the enrollee” and becoming the enrollee’s assignee. 42 C.F.R. § 422.574(b)." [page 6 of 8]

 

 

2006 GUIDE TO

New Medicare Claims Appeals Process

© 2005-6, Jin Zhou, ERISAclaim.com

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