Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

IN OTHER NEWS ... Medicare's redesigned Provider Statistical and Reimbursement system is making its debut. Medicare's new Internet-based PS&R system at www.cms.hhs.gov/PSRR took effect July 13. Take note: "Providers will be responsible to obtain their own PS&R Summary Reports needed to file their cost reports for fiscal years ending January 31, 2009 and later," CMS notes on its PS&R site. "Prior to accessing PS&R, each user must first have an ID and password for CMS' Individuals Authorized Access to CMS Computer Systems (IACS)." Cost reports for years ending prior to Jan. 31, 2009 will still use the legacy PS&R system, CMS notes in an MLN Matters article at www.cms.hhs.gov/MLHMattersArticles/downloads/MM6519.pdf. Providers can request detail reports via the Internet, but their intermediaries or carriers must still send them securely due to their "sensitive data," CMS notes. CMS continues to permit contractors to charge for more than one detail report per [...]