Last week, CMS issued version 1.3 of the Self-Administration Toolkit for WCMSAs. The Toolkit can help claimants manage their funds appropriately and satisfy Medicare’s interests to ensure that they don’t jeopardize their entitlement to future Medicare benefits. The Toolkit outlines the entire self-administration process, from establishing the bank account for your WCMSA to exhausting or temporarily depleting your funds. The Toolkit also discusses the two types of WCMSA accounts, lump sum and structured, with a particular focus on topics unique to structured WCMSAs. In addition, the toolkit covers special circumstances, such as when your Medicare beneficiary status changes. Specific changes include revisions to reflect the new portal feature related to electronic attestations, and notes,
“If you are a beneficiary administering your own account, you can submit your yearly attestation online by accessing the WCMSA Portal through the MyMedicare.gov website. If you are a representative or other identified administrator for the account, you can log in directly to the WCMSA Portal to submit the yearly attestation. To access, go to https://www.cob.cms.hhs.gov/WCMSA/. The WCMSAP User Guide, available under the Reference Materials header once you log in to the site, has details about submitting your attestation online. The wording on the forms is the same as you will find later in this toolkit.”
While electronic submission is now an option, annual attestations can still be mailed to CMS. Be on the lookout for two upcoming webinars that CMS will be hosting to highlight the new electronic attestation feature.
Another significant change is noted in Section 10 (page 10), with regards to the death of an individual with a WCMSA account, prior to complete exhaustion of the WCMSA account. The toolkit now declares that the BCRC should be advised of the death, and states,
“The Medicare Regional Office (RO) and the BCRC will make sure that all bills related to the WC claim have been paid. This may involve holding the WCMSA open for some time after the date of death, as health care providers can submit their first bill to Medicare up to 12 months after the date of service. Then any amount left over in the WCMSA may be paid out according to state law, once Medicare’s interests have been protected. Often, the settlement itself will state how to spend funds after the death of the claimant and payment of care related expenses.”
