Government
Contractors tracking Medicare payments doing fine, audit says
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Nov. 20, 2006
The two contractors hired by Medicare to determine the program's percentage of improper payments operate effectively, the Dept. of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General concluded in a recent audit.
AdvanceMed and Livanta review claims documentation from physicians and other Medicare participants and follow up with doctors when they do not receive requested medical documents promptly.
The OIG determined that both companies were effective in giving the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid the information it needed to gauge the program's error rate.
The audit results follow a recent report from CMS that it had reduced its percentage of improper Medicare payments from 5.2% in 2005 to 4.4% in 2006. The reduction saved the program an estimated $1.3 billion this year.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2006/11/20/gvbf1120.htm.