Medicare Claims Updates

More Inspections and Scrutiny Under OIG's 2013 Workplan

Each year the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General (OIG) produces a work plan that outlines the agency’s focus for the upcoming year. With a staff of over 1,700 professionals, the OIG conducts investigations, audits, and, among other projects, enters and monitors corporate integrity agreements. Below we discuss some of the highlights from the OIG 2013 Work Plan. [...]

Wading Through The Medicare Alphabet Soup

The Medicare and Medicaid programs provide health insurance for tens of millions of people. According to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the Medicare program alone has 47.5 million beneficiaries and, in 2010, had total expenditures of $523 billion. It is not surprising, therefore, that such large programs invite scrutiny from government auditors and their contractors seeking to safeguard the Medicare Trustfund. Below is a brief description of some of the auditing contractors:

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Investigators Focus on Medicare Plan B Payments in 2012

In the fall of last year, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) for the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) released its Fiscal Year 2012 workplan which identifies new and already-in progress programs of focus for the OIG.

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Overview Of Medicare As A Secondary Payer Issues

You may have heard that Medicaid is a payer of last resort, a requirement that Medicaid providers bill other payers first when Medicaid enrollees have other forms of insurance, such as Medicare. But providers should note that Medicare is not always the payer of first resort.

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What Providers Need To Know About ABNs

Providers may have heard that they are required to provide in certain instances Medicare beneficiaries with an Advanced Beneficiary Notice of NonCoverage (ABN) but the specifics of the requirements may not be known to everyone.

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CMS Using New Technologies To Fight Healthcare Fraud

Nowadays State and Federal governments are focused on making healthcare fraud, waste and abuse their top priorities. In furtherance of this goal, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) announced recently that starting July 1, it will begin using innovative predictive modeling technology to fight Medicare fraud.

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