Home Health & Hospice Week

It's time to beef up your documentation. There's no question about it--theMedicare program's Recovery Audit Contractors are armed and ready to sweep the greater medical community, including home care providers. In their three-year pilot, RACs racked up a whopping $1 billion in corrected overpayments, and they're not stopping there. These medical review bounty hunters are rolling out in 24 states now and will start activities in the remaining states in August. Stay alert: "If you're submitting claims to Medicare, it's 100 percent odds that you'll be audited," cautions Tim Johnson of Castle Rock Medical Group, a Denver-based consulting firm that specializes in RACs. It might not happen right away since the contractors will target high-dollar claims first, but as they become more efficient, "the lower they'll drill down," he says. Experts recommend these tips to minimize RAC review fallout: 1. Act fast on record requests. If a RAC contacts you [...]