The national roll out of Medicare's Recovery Audit Contractor program is on hold because of protests filed by two contractors who bid unsuccessfully to be part of the program.
The dispute will be reviewed by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and a decision is expected in early February. In the meantime, officials at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have imposed an automatic stay on any work by the four regional recovery audit contractors (RACs) recently selected by the agency.
The stay means that the agency has postponed most of its provider outreach efforts. However, the delay is temporary and not expected to result in any substantive changes to the program, according to CMS.
The RAC program is aimed at identifying and correcting improper payments—both over and under—made through the Medicare fee-for-service program. But the program has been unpopular with physicians, who say it adds administrative hassles and puts the burden on physicians to prove that payments they received were correct.
The RAC program was mandated by Congress as part of the Medicare Modernization Act; it began as a 3-year demonstration project in New York, Massachusetts, Florida, South Carolina, and California.
The demonstration project was completed earlier this year and the national roll out of the program was scheduled to be completed by 2010.