# Should my office notify Medicare of a billing error for sedation codes?



## MSCPCNG (Dec 18, 2008)

I am trying to locate a real person employed by Medicare, possibly a local Alaska State rep. My question is, should I notify Medicare of an error that the office found an error in the number of units of a specific CPT we have billed to CMS. The last office I worked at we contacted our CMS rep.  I am new to Juneau and we are pretty limited in resources.  Any suggestions would be helpful.   Thank you in advance.


----------



## jdrueppel (Dec 18, 2008)

If you have identified a billing error that has caused an overpayment, especially recurring, your should DEFINITELY talk to your administrator and complaince officer/attorney about informing Medicare.  If the overpayment is substantial and you can calculate the amount of overpayment then you can send a refund check to Medicare with the Voluntary Refund Form with an attachment identifying each patient/HIC/DOS/ICN/amount of line item refund.  If you are unable to calculate the overpayment amount then you should contact your Medicare carrier and report the issue and ask for guidance.

I googled Alaska Medicare Part B and I came up with Noridan.  If this is your correct carrier below is their contact information.  In addition, I have added the link to their Voluntary Refund Form.

Provider Contact Center
Available Monday – Friday,
8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. in Respective Time Zone (800) 933-0614 


https://www.noridianmedicare.com/p-medb/forms/docs/ref_med.pdf

Julie, CPC


----------



## MSCPCNG (Dec 23, 2008)

Julie,
Thank you for your reply and info.  I called Noridian before I sent out the email and they suggested I call and request the phone reopening line.  This is for changes such as units, modifiers, month and day changes, ICD-9 and CPT codes if down coding. I am not familiar with this process and I will check into it. I do not think we will have to refund any payments because Medicare has denied for wrong # of units. I am in the process of doing an audit on these codes for the past year and half.
I am new to this office (Orthopedic Surgeons and PT) and I am working on trying to show them the importance and need for a compliance/quality person.  This is a small office and training and education is only through travel to the mainland or via the Web.  It is a challange to get staff to trust me when I try to educate them.  I find I have to take very small steps and always back up my info with a hard copy of the info.   
Thanks again for your assistance.


----------



## harms (Dec 31, 2008)

Whenever I submitted a claim with errors to an insurance company, I called the company to explain the error and obtained the name of a contact person/supervisor.  I then printed out a corrected claim and sent it with a letter addressed to the contact person explaining the error and the reason for the resubmission.  I have had no problems yet.


----------

