Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

Rural health centers. SNFs most pleased with their FI contractors.

Providers are content with their Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) contractors' claims processing, customer service and educational activities, according to a new survey.

More than 25,000 randomly selected physicians, health care practitioners, suppliers and institutional facilities rated the 42 Medicare FFS contractors on the services they perform, scoring them from "1" (not at all satisfied) to "6" (completely satisfied). Approximately 85 percent of the surveyed providers rated their contractors between "4" and "6," the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) said in its recent announcement of the survey results.

This was the first edition of the Medicare Contractor Provider Satisfaction Survey (MCPSS), which CMS initiated earlier this year. The determining factors for provider satisfaction were claims processing and how the contractors handled providers' questions, CMS says.
 
The lowest composite score of the different contractor types was for durable medical equipment regional carriers, the MCPSS reveals. Regional home health intermediaries netted the highest average score--4.79 points on the six-point scale. Part A fiscal intermediaries received an average score of 4.71, and Part B carriers received 4.52 points, CMS reports.

Skilled nursing facilities and rural health centers were the happiest with their Medicare fiscal intermediaries and scored them the highest out of other providers who work with FIs.

On average, end-stage renal disease treatment facilities and hospitals also gave high scores to their FIs. "For those interacting with carrier contractors, the most satisfied providers are ambulance (4.66) and physicians (4.61), followed by labs (4.50) and licensed practitioners (4.40)," CMS says.

"These results from our first-year survey will set the baseline so we may identify trends and address issues in the future," CMS administrator Mark McClellan said in the announcement. "The survey enables CMS to make valid comparisons of provider satisfaction between contractors and, over time, improvements to the Medicare program," he adds.

CMS will administer another MCPSS to a new sample of providers next January. For more information, go to www.cms.hhs.gov/MCPSS.