Rey (Reinaldo) Alvarez is the Managing Attorney for the Workers’ Compensation and Medicare Compliance Division of Luks, Santaniello. Martindale-Hubbell and his peers have rated him AV® Preeminent™. Rey also serves as the WC Committee Chair for the Florida Defense Lawyers Association (FDLA) and is a columnist for the Claims and Litigation Management Alliance (CLM) Workers' Compensation magazine. Rey has substantial WC experience defending employers, insurance carriers, tpa's, government entities and self-insureds throughout Florida. He also has more than a decade of experience in preparing Medicare Cost Projections, Medicare Set-Asides and Conditional Lien negotiations with CMS. Rey handles all firm wide conditional lien negotiations. Prior to working at Luks, Santaniello, Rey managed a Medicare Reporting and Set-Aside Department with his last firm.

Rey authored and published a book on the new Medicare Reporting and MSA requirements. More recently, he co-authored with Dan Santaniello, a Medicare White Paper that was presented at the 15th Annual Florida Liability Claims Conference and was published in the FDLA issue of 'Trial Advocate Quarterly' (Volume 30, Number 4, Fall 2011). Rey also wrote an article on “Reducing the Cost of Funding a Medicare Set-Aside” that was published in the Florida Bar Workers' Compensation Section 'News & 440 Report' (Summer 2011). A.M. Best released an Insurance Law Podcast (2012) featuring Dan Santaniello and Rey Alvarez discussing Medicare Compliance issues.

Rey spoke in January 2014 at the NAMSAP Regional Conference on WC MSA trends and impact, reporting and conditional liens. He was a featured speaker at a Medicare Lien boot camp sponsored by the National Business Institute in November 2013. Rey was a speaker at the American Academy of Disability Evaluating Physicians on WC Impairment Ratings and Impairment Benefits. He also spoke in an AM Best Insurance Law pod cast on the SMART Act.

Rey also possesses substantial knowledge of the Social Security Disability law and has represented all types of Social Security Disability matters. He also writes a blog on current Workers' Compensation case law and important decisions. It can be viewed at http://floridaworkerscomp.blogspot. Rey works out of the Miami office and directs the assigned teams in Jacksonville, Tampa, Orlando, and Tallahassee.

Rey's recent articles include:

"The Other Shoe Drops on States’ Attempts to Opt Out of the System" by Rey Alvarez, Esq.

"How Big Is the Gig? The sharing economy’s impact on workers’ compensation." by Rey Alvarez, Esq. and Seth Masson, Esq.

"The Case Against a Cancer Presumption for Firefighters. Thousands of people outside of firefighting get the same cancers as firefighters, but firefighters are getting a presumption. Does statutory presumption go too far?" by Rey Alvarez, Esq.

"How Employers/Carriers Can Prevent the “Double-Dip” by Rey Alvarez, Esq. and Daniel Feight, Esq. The article was originally published in the Trial Advocate Quarterly, Spring 2016 (volume 35, #2) and is reprinted here with Permission from the Florida Defense Lawyers Association.

Medicare White Paper by Daniel J. Santaniello, President FDLA and Reinaldo Alvarez, Member. This article was originally published in Trial Advocate Quarterly.

Read about Penalties and Fines that can be assessed for failure to comply with the Medicare Secondary Payer Act inside Legal Update (pp. 8-10). It is important to know how and when penalties can be assessed as they can add up quickly.