The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has recently released the Medicare RAC collections data for the last quarter of 2011 fiscal year. Recovery auditors identified $277.1 million in overpayments and $76.6 million in underpayments, for a total claims’ correction of $353.7 million, which was 22 percent higher than the total corrected claims identified in the previous quarter.
CMS also released a supplemental report for the entire 2011 fiscal year. The total identified claim corrections for the fiscal year was $939.4 million in collected overpayments and $141.9 million in returned underpayments. These amounts greatly outnumber the corrected claims identified from 2010 fiscal year.
Currently, CMS’ quarterly reports fail to mention the success rates of appeals, which would decrease the identified claim correction amounts. However, CMS has stated that it will begin to make official appeal rates available in its annual Report to Congress.
If you need assistance defending against RAC audits or implementing a compliance program that will help identify and correct potential risk areas related to RAC audits, please contact a Wachler & Associates attorney at 248-544-0888.