Industry Note:
RAC Audits Will Impact Medicaid Claims Jan. 1, CMS Says
Published on Tue Aug 23, 2011
Delays have given you more time to prepare. You've benefited from several delays to Medicaid RAC audits, but Jan. 1 will be a day of reckoning when those audits kick in. Recovery Audit Contractors will be reviewing Medicaid claims soon, thanks to last year's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Although RAC audits were originally slated to impact Medicaid claims on April 1, 2011, CMS delayed that date (see Eli's Home Care Week, Vol. XX, No. 11, p. 85). Finally on Sept. 14, CMS posted a final rule in the Federal Register indicating the audits will begin on Jan. 1, 2012. Medicaid RACs may be more inclined to review home care claims than the Medicare RACs, experts speculate. In place for Medicare providers since 2005, RACs are often referred to as medical review "bounty hunters" because they make money only if they collect overpayments from you. Their income is tied [...]