Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

New database to monitor complaints against providers.

If patients complains about the quality of service they receive, their providers could hear from their surveyors more quickly than in the past. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is establishing a new database to track and respond to complaints or problems at health care facilities. In an Aug. 22 Federal Register notice, the agency unveiled the ASPEN Complaints/Incidents Tracking System (ACTS), a system of records designed to "track and process complaints and incidents reported against Medicare/Medicaid/CLIA providers and suppliers and to maintain information on laboratory directors and owners." CMS' implementation of ACTS was spurred by HHS Office of Inspector General and General Accounting Office worries that CMS doesn't do enough to ensure that beneficiaries receive care in safe environments. The national system will be used for all certified providers and suppliers, CMS says. To see the notice, go to www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fedreg/a030822c.html. Lesson Learned: Health care providers may see a more streamlined response to complaints under CMS' ACTS system of complaint/incident tracking.