Every healthcare organization should develop and implement a policy and a well-defined process that provides guidance for managing incident and breach response.
This year's Recovery Auditor Benchmarking Report surveyed 325 respondents, representing both small and large hospitals, from all four Recovery Auditor regions. It may not come as a huge surprise to many that the main theme of this year's survey is the expanding state of the Recovery Auditors (RA), and the fact that they continue to gain speed and extend their reach.
Being audited is rarely fun. After all, you're probably going to lose money, face a fine, or both. More and more entities are auditing healthcare claims-Recovery Auditors, Medicare Integrity Contractors, MACs, FIs, commercial payers, and on and on.
There has been some confusion surrounding a possible Recovery Auditor-related provision in the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, also known as the fiscal cliff deal.
Recovery Auditor overpayment and underpayment statistics are released by CMS at the close of each fiscal year (FY) quarter, and with FY 2012 in the books, CMS has published its year-end improper payment figures. In FY 2012, the numbers continued to ascend, as CMS more than doubled its total correction amount from the previous year.
One thing is certain: You don't want to wait until you receive a notification letter from OCR before you begin preparing for a HIPAA audit, says Dena Boggan, CPC, CMC, CCP, HIPAA privacy/security officer at St. Dominic Jackson (Miss.) Memorial Hospital.
