Louisiana: Medicare Set Aside Account “Seed Money” Cannot Be Used to Pay Attorney Fees

A Louisiana appellate court held that under the “clear, unambiguous, and plainly stated” provisions of the parties’ Medicare Set-Aside Agreement, the funds in the account could only be used to pay for medical services related to the injured worker’s work-related injury that normally would have been paid by Medicare.  Accordingly, the state Office of Workers Compensation did not err in denying a request that a portion of the “seed money” used to fund the MSA be paid to the worker’s attorneys for an attorney’s fee.

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is a leading commentator and expert on the law of workers’ compensation.

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance. Bracketed citations link to lexis.com.

See Benoit v. MMR Group, Inc., 2014 La. App. LEXIS 716 (Mar. 19, 2014) [2014 La. App. LEXIS 716 (Mar. 19, 2014)]

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 157.03 [157.03]

Source: Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, the nation’s leading authority on workers’ compensation law.

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