How the SMART Act Solved the Medicare Secondary Payer Problems

The SMART Act was approved in case to remedy the issues seen for various decades within the Medicare Secondary Payer law.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued its final rule detailing a timeline for the expansion of the Medicare Secondary Payer Web portal, which must meet the needs of the Medicare IVIG Access and Strengthening Medicare and Repaying Taxpayers Act of 2012 or SMART Act.

The SMART Act was passed in case to remedy the issued seen for several decades within the Medicare Secondary Payer law, according to the Medicare Advocacy Recovery Coalition. In the year 1980, the Senate and House of Representatives passed the Medicare Secondary Payer law, which determines the payment procedures for treating Medicare beneficiaries in the midst of a scenario in which a third party is responsible for covering medical costs.

“When the Medicare program was enacted in the year 1965, Medicare was the primary payer for all medically necessary covered and otherwise reimbursable items and services, with the exception of those items and services covered and payable by workers’ compensation. In the year 1980, the Congress enacted the Medicare Secondary Payer (MSP) provisions of the Social Security Act (the Act), which added section 1862(b) to the Act and developed Medicare as the secondary payer to certain primary plans,” the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) reported in a news brief.