Effective January 5, 2019, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will begin using the CDC’s “Table 1: Life Table for the total population: United States, 2015” when calculating life expectancy for Workers’ Compensation Medicare Set Aside (WCMSA) claimants. Since CMS approvals can take up to 20 business days on average, all WCMSAs submitted to CMS from this date forward should reflect the 2015 life table. Changes noted on the life table are minor and the rounding procedure utilized by CMS should result in the use of the same life expectancy in many cases.
