CMS Takes OIG Recommendation On Date Of Death Payment Errors.
Published on Wed Sep 15, 2010
Starting next April, your patients' Common Working File charts may get more accurate thanks to your claims. After investigating Medicare payments for items and services with dates of service after beneficiaries' deaths, the HHS Office of Inspector General recommended that CMS enter dates of death from home health agency claims into the CWF system. CMS agreed and its contractors will "target implementation for April 2011," the agency says in its comments on the report. Most HHA-related overpayments the OIG identified got recouped, however, the OIG found. But for durable medical equipment suppliers, about $10,000 from 150 sampled claims did not get correctly repaid due to date-of-death payment errors. The report is online at
www.oig.hhs.gov/oas/reports/region1/10900519.pdf.