Healthcare Insights

Analysis and practical guides on healthcare.

23 articles, checklists, and guides on healthcare law, written by the attorneys at MC Law. Every piece is general information, not legal advice — for a specific matter, contact the firm.

HealthcareMedicare

Medicare: Enrollment, Coverage, Appeals, and What It Does Not Pay For

Medicare is four programs with different rules, three enrollment systems with different penalties, and an appeal structure with five levels, and almost every consequential mistake people make with it is a timing mistake. This article explains who is eligible and when, why missing an enrollment period produces a penalty that lasts for life, what each part covers and what none of them cover, why observation status can eliminate the skilled nursing benefit entirely, why the improvement standard is not the law, how the five level appeal process works including the expedited review that produces a decision in about two days, how Medigap guaranteed issue rights work and why the one time window matters more than the price, and the programs that reduce costs for people with limited income.

Casey Scott McKaySeptember 3, 202628 min read

HealthcareMalpractice

Medical Negligence Toolkit: Records, Experts, Pre-Suit Requirements, and Damages

A working kit for medical negligence practice. Section A holds the demand letters: an itemized records request, a separate electronic audit trail demand, and an evidence preservation letter for strips, specimens, and equipment. Section B holds a chronology template and a case type analysis map. Section C holds expert instruments: a qualification worksheet keyed to state statutes, a merit review engagement letter that asks breach and causation separately, and a nexus of opinions checklist. Section D holds pre suit filings including a certificate of merit, a notice of intent, and an FTCA administrative claim. Section E holds discovery requests and a response to a peer review privilege assertion. Section F holds damages and lien instruments. Section G collects the primary authorities.

Casey Scott McKaySeptember 3, 202615 min read

HealthcareMedicare

Enrolling in and Appealing Medicare: A Practical Guide

This guide runs Medicare in the order a person actually encounters it, from the decision six months before turning sixty five through an appeal of a denied claim. It covers the enrollment decision tree including the employer coverage verification that determines whether delaying Part B is safe, the six month Medigap window that closes permanently, how to compare Medicare Advantage against original Medicare with a supplement using the asymmetry that should drive the choice, the annual review that takes an hour and saves the most money, what to do on hospital admission about observation status, the notice that carries a two day appeal, the five appeal levels and where representation begins to matter, and the cost assistance programs that are badly under enrolled.

Casey Scott McKaySeptember 3, 202630 min read

HealthcareMalpractice

Medical Malpractice Case Evaluation Checklist: A Practical Checklist

A screening and workup checklist for a potential medical malpractice claim. It opens with the intake questions that sort most calls in ten minutes and the three dates that must be calendared on day one including the statute of repose that can bar a claim before it is discovered. It then runs the two minute check for a federally deemed clinic that changes the court and the deadline entirely, the itemized complete records request including the electronic audit trail that is never produced unless named, the chronology built from objective sources, the merit review that answers breach and causation separately, the economic analysis against the state damages cap, the pre suit requirements that run inside the limitations period, discovery priorities, damages proof, and lien resolution before any settlement is recommended.

Casey Scott McKaySeptember 2, 20267 min read

HealthcareMalpractice

Bringing a Medical Malpractice Case: A Practical Guide

This guide runs a potential malpractice claim from the first phone call through resolution. It covers the intake questions that identify a case in ten minutes, the complete records request including the electronic audit trail that almost nobody asks for, building the minute by minute chronology from objective sources, obtaining a merit review that separates breach from causation, the state specific pre suit requirements that take months and cannot be compressed, the economic analysis that determines whether a case can be brought at all under damages caps, the deemed federal clinic check that changes the court and the deadline entirely, discovery and expert work, and resolution including lien resolution and structured settlements.

Casey Scott McKayAugust 31, 202628 min read

HealthcareMalpractice

Medical Malpractice: Standard of Care, Causation, Damages, and Defenses

A bad outcome is not malpractice, and that single distinction organizes the entire field. This article explains what the standard of care actually requires and how it is proved, why nearly every state now demands a supporting expert affidavit before a case may be filed, how causation is litigated including the loss of chance doctrine, how informed consent operates as a separate theory with its own standard, why the statute of limitations in these cases is unusually complicated because of the discovery rule and statutes of repose, how damages caps and collateral source modifications have reshaped recovery, who else can be liable through vicarious liability and corporate negligence, and the special regimes for federally funded clinics, emergency care, and vaccine injuries.

Casey Scott McKayAugust 24, 202627 min read

HealthcareMedicare

Medicare Enrollment and Appeal Checklist: A Practical Checklist

This checklist runs Medicare in five sequences: the enrollment decision before sixty five, the supplement and plan choice, the annual review, the hospital and service-termination appeals that run on two-day clocks, and the claim appeal ladder. Each item is a discrete action with the deadline that governs it. It is designed to be printed and worked through with a folder, a calendar, and a phone. The enrollment section exists because a wrong answer there is permanent, and the appeal sections exist because the deadlines are short and unforgiving. Use it alongside the Medicare article and guide.

Casey Scott McKayAugust 12, 20268 min read

HealthcareInsurance

Health Insurance Appeal Toolkit: Internal Appeals, External Review, and ERISA Litigation

A working kit for health coverage appeals. Section A is a plan type diagnostic that determines which law applies and what remedies exist. Section B holds the document requests including the claim file request that produces the clinical criteria and reviewer credentials. Section C holds a criteria comparison worksheet and a denial type response map. Section D holds the letters that decide appeals: a letter of medical necessity template, a peer to peer request, the internal appeal letter, and an expedited appeal request. Section E holds external review and regulatory complaint filings. Section F holds specialty requests including formulary and step therapy exceptions, a prudent layperson emergency appeal, a parity analysis request, and a No Surprises Act dispute. Section G holds an ERISA complaint outline and a record preservation checklist. Section H collects the primary authorities.

Casey Scott McKayAugust 10, 202616 min read

HealthcareTelehealth

Telehealth Law: Licensure, Prescribing, Reimbursement, and Privacy

Telehealth is not a distinct legal category. It is ordinary clinical practice conducted across a distance, which means every rule that governs a medical practice still applies and several of them apply differently. This article covers the questions that determine whether a telehealth business can lawfully operate: where the practitioner must be licensed and which compacts help, what establishes a valid practitioner-patient relationship and what modalities a state will accept, when a controlled substance may be prescribed without an in-person examination under the Ryan Haight Act, how Medicare and commercial reimbursement actually work after the expiration of pandemic-era flexibilities, and how the corporate practice of medicine doctrine constrains ownership and management of the clinical entity. The unifying principle is that the patient's physical location at the time of the encounter determines which state's law governs nearly every question.

Casey Scott McKayAugust 9, 202624 min read

HealthcareMedicare

Medicare Toolkit: Enrollment, Coverage Decisions, Appeals, and Cost Assistance

This toolkit collects the working documents of a Medicare matter: the employer coverage verification request, the Medigap and plan comparison worksheets, the observation status inquiry, the expedited appeal script, the demand bill request, the redetermination and reconsideration letters, a physician medical necessity letter template, the drug exception requests, the IRMAA life-changing-event filing, and a deadline calendar. Each item is annotated with the rule it invokes and the mistake it prevents. Adapt the templates to the plan and the state, and check current amounts before filing.

Casey Scott McKayJuly 27, 202611 min read

HealthcareInsurance

Health Coverage Denial and Appeal Checklist: A Practical Checklist

A deadline driven checklist for a health insurance denial. It opens with the three day one questions including whether the plan is self funded, which changes the applicable law, the available remedies, and the standard of review. It then runs the claim file request that produces the clinical criteria and reviewer credentials, the line by line comparison of those criteria against the medical record, the letter of medical necessity that must answer each stated ground, the internal appeal and its expedited track, the external review that binds the plan and is most often skipped, the regulatory complaints to file in parallel, the bill management steps while the appeal is pending, and the ERISA record rule that makes the internal appeal the only opportunity to build a file.

Casey Scott McKayJuly 27, 20268 min read

HealthcareInsurance

Appealing a Health Insurance Denial: A Practical Guide

This guide runs a health insurance appeal from the day the denial arrives through external review and, if necessary, into court. It covers the first question that changes everything, whether the plan is self funded or insured, the claim file request that produces the clinical criteria and reviewer credentials the denial rests on, how to read those criteria against your own records, how to get a letter of medical necessity that answers each stated ground rather than praising the treatment in general, the internal appeal deadlines and expedited track, the external review that overturns a large share of denials and binds the plan, the regulatory complaints that produce movement, and the ERISA rule that makes the internal appeal the only chance to build a record.

Casey Scott McKayJuly 13, 202628 min read