Skip Page Banner  
HEALTH CARE
BLOG

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Is CMS Having Problems Collecting Medicare Overpayments?

by James Swann

RSS


CMS contractors reported uncollected Medicare overpayments of $543 million in fiscal year 2010, but detailed overpayment information was only available for seven out of the 39 affected contractors, according to a recent report from OIG. The report said detailed information was missing for the remaining 32 contractors due to mergers and contractors transitioning to new workloads. 

Additionally, OIG said over half of the reported uncollected overpayments were not associated with a provider type, which can deter collection efforts. OIG defined uncollected overpayments as "any accounts receivable for which the provider has not made a repayment for at least 6 months after the due date on the first Medicare letter requesting repayment."

OIG said CMS should:

 

  • ensure that overpayment demand letters go to the correct provider address;
  • use tax identification numbers to identify providers who are receiving government payments to offset payments and speed up overpayment collection; and
  • ensure that all overpayment data include a provider type.
Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) said there's work to be done to ensure better collection of overpayments. "Given our nation’s current financial challenges, leaving hundreds of millions of dollars in waste on the table is simply not an option," Carper said. "I hope CMS will take this report seriously and moves swiftly to implement its recommendations," he said. Carper is chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.  
 

 
Subscription RequiredAll BNA publications are subscription-based and require an account. If you are a subscriber to the BNA publication and signed-in, you will automatically have access to the story. If you are not a subscriber, you will need to sign-up for a trial subscription.

You must Sign In or Register to post a comment.

Comments (0)