Legal Question in Workers Comp in California

YOU do not get to make that determination; the Center for Medicare Services -- CMS -- tells the insurance adjuster how much the Feds insist taking as the Medicare Set-Aside -- MSA.

The process begins by your attorney (or you, if you don't have counsel) asking the insurance company if they will consider a Compromise & Release Agreement (closing out any and all rights, including future medical rights) for a lump-sum payment; if you wish, you can toss out a very large number just to get the discussion moving.

Then the adjuster (or defense attorney) IF INTERESTED will send you a form with which you release your private medical records to a company that will negotiate the lowest sum possible to satisfy Medicare with a MSA. CMS will tell you and the adjuster the amount it would insist as an MSA.

With that number in hand from CMS, you know how much you have to sock away and manage for the day when CMS knocks on your door for Medicare's MSA money, and you can add onto that the amount you expect to surrender all of your rights in a Compromise & Release Agreement.