Corporate Compliance

Contractor overpays Massachusetts hospitals

Compliance Monitor, January 25, 2007

Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to Compliance Monitor!

Associated Hospital Service (AHS), a Medicare contractor based in Maine, made inaccurate payments for claims, according to a recent OIG audit.

AHS made full diagnosis-related group payments for claims that should have been reduced to short-stay outlier payments. The claims also should have been reduced by the beneficiaries' co-insurance amounts for lifetime reserve days.

AHS paid more than $936,000 for 83 claims to eight long-term care hospitals in Massachusetts. The services covered were performed between January 1, 2003 and April 30, 2004. This happened because the intermediary did not ensure that the hospitals' claims contained the appropriate coverage status codes.

As part of the OIG's recommendation to resolve the inaccuracies, AHS agreed to recover the overpayments made to the eight hospitals.



Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to Compliance Monitor!

    Strategies for Health Care Compliance
  • Strategies for Health Care Compliance

    News and real-life examples to increase the effectiveness of your compliance program. Strategies for Health Care Compliance...

  • Compliance Monitor

    This HTML e-mail newsletter delivers news on Medicare and Medicaid fraud and abuse, as well as recent documents and targets...

  • Medicare Weekly Update

    Each issue of Medicare Weekly Update includes the latest CMS proposed and final rules, CMS manual revisions, and...

  • Medicare Update for Physician Services

    Medicare Update for Physician Services is a free, monthly e-zine that delivers news and information to help physician...

Most Popular

Related Articles