Home Health & Hospice Week

• If you've got questions about the recovery audit contractors (RACs), a new series of free conference calls from CMS may give you answers. The agency has scheduled four 90-minute calls for April 28, May 4, May 5, and May 12.

"These calls offer another opportunity for providers who missed the earlier presentations to hear the RAC 101 session and to ask any questions they may have regarding the RAC process," CMS says.

You need not register for the calls, but to get the dial-in information, visit the CMS Web site at www.cms.gov/RAC/03_RecentUpdates.asp.

In the meantime, you can find out how Medicare is improving its processes so that providers can track RAC recoupments in a new MLN Matters article. CMS "is not providing enough detail currently in the RA to enable providers to track and update their records to reconcile Medicare payments," the agency admits in the article.

The new remittance advice information which will enable better tracking is in the article at www.cms.gov/MLNMattersArticles/downloads/MM6870.pdf. The changes will take effect in July.