Audits:
RACs Can No Longer Keep Fees After Losing Appeals
Published on Fri Apr 02, 2010
Plus: You'll soon be able to review the most common errors that the RACs find. The feds are attempting to limit the amount of bounty that the so-called RAC "bounty hunters" are able to collect, to the delight of many providers. Then: During the Recovery Audit Contractors'original demonstration period, if the RAC lost an appeal at the initial level, it had to return its contingency fee. But if the RAC lost at a later level, it got to keep the fee. Now: "If the RAC loses at any level of appeal, the RAC must return the contingency fee," said the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services'Amy Reese, project officer for Region C RAC (Connolly Healthcare), during a May 12 RAC Open Door Forum. "We feel that this is a much better way to incentivize the RACs to stick to clear-cut, black and white issues that are able to hold up [...]