Industry Notes:
NATIONWIDE RAC PROGRAM COMING SOON
Published on Tue Jan 13, 2009
Temporary hold-up resolved, CMS says. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' Recovery Audit Contractor program is back on track. The Government Accountability Office has resolved contract protests lodged last fall and the RACs are moving forward, CMS reports. CMS will begin provider outreach activities in the next few months, it says. Then providers will begin receiving "correspondence" from the RACs. The permanent and national program will be implemented by Jan. 1, 2010. Thanks to the protest resolution, providers will have two RAC subcontractors to know about,PRG-Schultz Inc. and Viant Payment Systems Inc.. That's in addition to the originally announced four RACs -- Diversified Collection Services Inc.,CGI Technologies and Solutions Inc., Connolly Consulting Associates Inc., and HealthDataInsights Inc. • Home care providers are holding out hope for some help from the economic stimulus bill, despite setbacks. Thanks to the Senate's requirement to pare down the bill's cost, no home care-specific provisions [...]