Sep

18

NEWS: Revised timeline for RACs

By Patient Access Weekly Advisor

Demand letters from Medicare’s Recovery Audit Contractors (RACs) may be arriving in your facility’s mailboxes by January.

Tim Hill, Office of Financial Management director, says hospitals will probably start receiving requests for medical records and the demand letters by January 2009, the American Hospital Association reports.

CMS had not listed an exact start time for the nationwide rollout in the permanent program. Now, providers have a clue the initial rollout should begin in January. CMS is expected to announce the permanent RACs by Oct. 1.

It is the same date the RACs are to begin education and outreach to providers, the AHA reports.

To read more about the timeline of the nationwide rollout, click here.