Missouri Owed More for Medicare Underpayments Than Any Other State

Missouri healthcare providers are most frequently shortchanged by the Medicare program, according to an annual report issued by CMS last week and reported in the Kansas City Business Journal.

CMS last week issued the first annual report to Congress of the Recovery Audit Contractor program, which identifies errors in Medicare reimbursements. According to the report, Missouri providers were owed just over $3 million in underpayments during fiscal year 2010, the highest amount of any state or territory included in the audit.

Missouri providers returned $2.3 million in overpayments during fiscal year 2010. The report did not discuss specific reasons for the underpayments, but the report demonstrated that the top errors in the region involved improper coding or problems when discharging patients to places other than their homes.

The RAC program collected around $75 million in Medicare overpayments nationwide in fiscal year 2010 and paid back $16.9 million in underpayments.

Related Articles on Coding, Billing and Collections:
GWU Professor: Cut Medical Costs, Not Reimbursement
Medicare RACs Identify, Correct $75.4M in Overpayments in FY2010
Supreme Court Hears Case on Private Parties' Right to Sue States Over Medicaid Reimbursement Cuts

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