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MARC Partnership

MSPN Joins Medicare Advocacy Recovery Coalition (MARC)

In significant news for our organization, your MSPN Board of Directors voted at its March meeting to join the Medicare Advocacy Recovery Coalition (MARC), the leading advocacy organization committed to fixing problems in the MSP Act.

As with our rebranding as The National MSP Network, this represents another significant step forward for MSPN in bringing our voice and advocacy efforts to a national level.

Background on MARC

MARC was formed in September of 2008 by a group of industry leaders who saw a critical need to improve the MSP system. These leaders created the national coalition to advocate on behalf of Medicare beneficiaries and affected companies for MSP reform.

MARC’s membership represents virtually every sector of the MSP regulated community, including plaintiff and defense attorneys, brokers, insureds, insurers, insurance and trade associations, MSP compliance companies, self-insureds, and third-party administrators.

MARC’s most notable legislative accomplishments have been securing passage of the SMART Act in 2013 and the PAID Act in 2020. Additionally, it has pursued policy priorities around ORM termination reform and flaws in the Treasury offset program.

MSPN-MARC Shared Policy Initiatives

Importantly, MARC and MSPN share several policy initiatives:

  • Section 111 Civil Money Penalties: Advocacy for a fair penalty structure that is focused on penalizing intentional non-compliance with the Section 111 reporting requirements rather than good faith errors and oversights.
  • PAID ACT: Work towards a smooth and seamless implementation of the PAID Act provisions that will provide identification of Medicare beneficiary enrollment in Part C Medicare Advantage and Part D prescription drug plans.
  • ORM termination: Advocacy of policy changes providing further grounds for ORM termination other than when a state statute of limitations has expired on future claims or when a beneficiary’s treating physician issues a letter stating no further treatment is necessary
Like MSPN, MARC has been involved with advocacy on Liability MSAs and around the Medicare conditional payment processes, including Treasury Department debt recovery. In addition, MARC has a new policy initiative that is examining changes to the private cause of action provisions of the MSP Act.

Enhance MSPN’s Advocacy Program

Over the past several years, MSPN has stepped up its efforts to advocate on behalf of its members before CMS. We now hold regular meetings with CMS’s Division of MSP Program Operations and communicate frequently with the division to raise members concerns.

Yet, there are limits to what MSPN can accomplish as an organization, especially when we do not have a lobbying firm in Washington, DC representing our interests. MARC does have such a firm and MARC is now recognized as the go-to advocacy group on MSP issues in Congress.

Following MARC’s presentation, the MSPN board agreed that joining MARC would enhance our advocacy efforts and ultimately benefit our members and corporate partners through MSP reform and improvements in CMS policy and practices. Important, this benefit is provided without any increase in our membership or corporate partner fees.

Keep in mind that while membership in MARC will augment some of our advocacy efforts, others will be left for MSPN to pursue. Notably, MARC has no policy priorities around MSAs. Before joining we expressed this concern and agreed to have further discussions around collaboration on MSA issues in the future.

CORPORATE PARTNERS

The relationship between The National MSP Network and CMS officials has been invaluable to my business. When the industry identifies concerning trends or questions, MSPN reaches out to CMS to get answers, work through problems and weigh in on potential policy changes. I can always turn to MSPN to help my business navigate these ever-changing waters.

- Amy Bilton