CMS auditors find $371 million in improper payments

Auditors working on contract to CMS have found more than $371 million in allegedly improper Medicare transactions that took place during 2007, CMS has reported. The auditors, who worked for CMS under the Recovery Audit Contractor demonstration program, found both overpayments and underpayments to providers. However, 96 percent of the improper payments detected by RAC contractors in California, New York and Florida were overpayments, while the rest were underpayments. The RAC program, which has been in effect since 2005, has raised a great deal of controversy since its inception, with auditors being accused of falsely detecting overpayments just to collect their commission. Despite these concerns, the program was expanded from the existing three states to Massachusetts, South Carolina and Arizona last year. 

To learn more about this issue:
- read this Modern Healthcare article (reg. req.)
- read the CMS report (.pdf)

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