By David Doolittle
There are a lot of ways to spend the first week of December: decorating or shopping for the holidays, dusting off your winter wardrobe, getting your 2017 tax documents in order.
But if you were planning to spend this week offering feedback about recovery audit contractors (RACs) — and you know who you are — I’ve got some news for you: The deadline to submit comments is Dec. 8, but the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will continue to review comments after that date.
AMA pushed for the extended comment period during a meeting earlier this year with CMS, which runs the RAC program.
AMA officials were concerned that specialty societies wouldn’t have enough time to properly review the RAC topics before the deadline because of the AMA Interim Meeting in November and the Thanksgiving holiday.
If this all makes sense to you, and you want to see the CMS topics up for review this month, check out the CMS website.
If all of this has you scratching your head, here’s a crash course: The Medicare Fee for Service RAC Program is designed to help CMS identify and correct improper Medicare payments. Four auditing firms are paid commissions to review payments made to practices, clinics, hospitals, and more in an effort to recoup overpayments and return underpayments.
More information can be found on the CMS website. AMA has worked to ensure the program is favorable to physicians.
TMA and the Coalition of State Medical Societies repeatedly have urged Congress to intervene, saying, “Medicare pays RACs like bounty hunters to find potential overpayments made to physicians.”
Action, Dec. 1, 2017
Last Updated On
December 05, 2017
Originally Published On
December 01, 2017