Government Shutdown is Already Impacting Medicare Secondary Payer (MSP): Cancellation of Today’s CMS Scheduled MSP Webinar

As of 12:01 AM ET this morning, the US Federal government shut down. In the past, a government shutdown has had little to no impact on operations at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and to the MSP program within the department. That is because typically CMS employees are deemed “essential” workers providing essential services; thus, they usually continue to work during a shutdown (and receive their backpay once the government reopens).   

Given that history, many MSP industry stakeholders assumed there would be no impact to today’s 2:00 PM ET CMS scheduled webinar covering WCMSA Section 111 Mandatory Insurer Reporting. As it turns out, CMS has canceled and postponed the webinar indefinitely. It is not immediately clear why the webinar has been postponed or when it will be rescheduled, and it is a bit early to speculate as to the specific cause (outside of the general shutdown) or if there will be unusual impacts to MSP compliance services within CMS during the shutdown.  

With respect to shut down protocol, each fiscal year, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) publishes various Contingency Staffing Plans for all HHS sub-agencies detailing which federal activities will and will not continue in the event of a federal shutdown. CMS’ 2025 Contingency Staffing Plan1 stipulates that the CMS program will continue during a shut down, but “policy and rule making” and “outreach and education” will be delayed or cease entirely given that only ~51% of CMS staff will be retained. Ostensibly, today’s scheduled webinar fell within one or both these categories. 

That stated, Sanderson Firm attorneys fervently monitor the happenings at CMS Central and will continue to do so considering this notice and the government shutdown. As soon as more information becomes available, we will be back in touch with any updates and our analysis. In the interim, if you have any questions or concerns related to the shutdown and its possible impacts on CMS’ MSP compliance division or possible downstream impacts to your compliance programs, please reach out to us!