Recovery audit contractors' work put on hold

The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) temporarily suspended work by the four recently named recovery audit contractors (RACs) after being informed by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) this week that two of the four contracts awarded are being protested by a pair of companies that bid on the work but were not selected.

The GAO has 100 days to issue a decision about the protests, meaning one likely will be announced in early February. Prior to the protested contracts, CMS had been moving ahead with outreach to state hospital associations, as hospitals were expected to be the first Medicare providers audited under the program. The AMCNO will keep our members apprised on how this matter progresses. As part of the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006, Congress required a permanent and national RAC program to be in place by Jan. 1, 2010. The national RAC program is the outgrowth of a demonstration program also mandated by Congress that used RACs to identify Medicare overpayments and underpayments to physicians and other health care providers in California, Florida, New York, Massachusetts, South Carolina and Arizona. Ohio is not slated for RAC audits to begin until August 2009 or later.