Home Health & Hospice Week

It's time to improve your billing, documentation. The RAC program is coming to Medicaid, and that means the audit contractors may become a much bigger threat to your reimbursement than they have been under Medicare. Last year's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act's requires that RACs audit Medicaid claims just like they do Medicare claims (see Eli's HCW, Vol. XX, No. 11, p. 85). Because RACs' income is specifically tied to the amount they recover, and is based on a percentage of the overpayments they identify, you can expect they'll be looking through your claims with a fine-toothed comb. Prepare now: Despite assumptions to the contrary, you can prepare for RACs to examine your claims -- even though you can't go back and make changes. And you have some time. In February, CMS delayed the April 1 deadline for Medicaid RACs, notes attorney Mark W. Bina with Krieg DeVault in Chicago. [...]