J11 MAC Contract Awarded to Palmetto GBA

On May 25, 2010, Palmetto GBA was awarded the A/B Medicare Administrative Contractor (MAC) contract for Jurisdiction 11 and Home Health and Hospice MAC Jurisdiction C. On June 1, 2010, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) notified us that the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) had received a protest of CMS' award to Palmetto GBA. The GAO denied the protest on September 9, 2010. Accordingly, we will be working closely with CMS in the coming days to begin work on implementation of the Jurisdiction 11 workload.

The Medicare Part A and Part B MAC for Jurisdiction 11 is comprised of North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia. It also includes Home Health and Hospice MAC Jurisdiction C, which covers Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas. Palmetto GBA has one business partner for this contract, National Government Services, a subsidiary of Wellpoint.

PalmettoGBA will continue to share information with the AMCNO and through the Palmetto GBA Web site and listserv as more details become available regarding how these decisions will affect physicians, including transition plans and schedules. The Medicare Part A and B MAC for Ohio has yet to be affirmed due to another protest – AMCNO will provide information when this is announced.

You may also reference the CMS article “Preparing for a Transition from an FI/Carrier to a Medicare Administrative Contractor (MAC) or from one Durable Medical Equipment (DME) MAC to another DME MAC,” which is available on the CMS Web site (http://www.cms.gov/MLNMattersArticles/downloads/SE1017.pdf).