Surprise! Voluntary refunds don't protect against RACs
Recovery Auditor Report, August 6, 2009
For many providers, self-auditing has become an important RAC preparation tool. Certainly, internal audit results can show where additional education is necessary to ensure appropriate coding, billing, and documentation practices. And this will result in fewer RAC denials, because if practices are correct, the RACs will find fewer errors to deny.
But many providers also assume that reporting errors (and refunding identified overpayments) discovered while self-auditing will protect those claims from RAC review.
Not so, says CMS.
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