Thursday, October 24, 2013

CMS Adds Another Medical Review Contractor

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has contracted with Strategic Health Solutions, LLC, a Supplemental Medical Review/Specialty Contractor (SMRC) to perform and/or provide support for a variety of tasks aimed at lowering the improper payment rates and increasing efficiencies of the medical review functions of the Medicare and Medicaid programs.
One of the primary tasks will be conducting nationwide medical review as directed by CMS. The medical review will be performed on Part A, Part B, and DME providers and suppliers. Services/Provider Specialties to be reviewed will be selected by CMS, Provider Compliance Group/Division of Medical Review and Education (DMRE).  The SMRC will evaluate medical records and related documents to determine whether Medicare claims were billed in compliance with coverage, coding, payment, and billing practices.
The focus of the reviews may include, but is not limited to vulnerabilities identified by CMS internal data analysis, the Comprehensive Error Rate Testing (CERT) program, professional organizations and Federal oversight agencies.
Robert Liles has published a good article regarding Strategic Health Solutions.  He will be speaking in February at our Stepping Up For Home Health and Stepping Up For Hospice on the topic of “Preparing and Responding to an Audit by RACs or ZPICs”.  I am sure he will also cover this new audit contractor.  We have listed a link below to Robert’s article.

CMS Link

Robert Liles Article Link

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