Monthly Archives: October 2021
Medicare Provider Appeals: Premature Recoupment Is Not OK!
A ZPIC audited a client of mine a few years ago and found an alleged overpayment of over $7 million. Prior to them hiring my team, they obtained a preliminary injunction in federal court – like I always preach to do – remember, that between the levels 2 and 3 of a Medicare provider appeal, CMS can recoup the alleged overpayment. This is sheer balderdash; the government should not be able to recoup funds that the provider, most likely, doesn’t owe. But this is the law. I guess we need to petition Congress to change this tomfoolery.
Going back to the case, an injunction stops the premature recoupments, but it does nothing regarding the actual alleged overpayments. In fact, the very reason that you can go to federal court based on an administrative action is because the injunction is ancillary to the merits of the contested case. Otherwise, you would have to exhaust your administrative remedies.
Here, we asserted, the premature recoupments (1) violated its rights to procedural due process, (2) infringed its substantive due-process rights, (3) established an “ultra vires” cause of action, and (4) entitled it to a “preservation of rights” injunction under the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. §§ 704–05. We won the battle, but not the war. To date, we have no date for an administrative law judge (“ALJ”) – or level 3 – hearing on the merits.
For those of you who have participated in a third-level, Medicare provider appeal will know that, many times, no one shows for the other side. The other side being the entity claiming that you owe $7million. For such an outlandish claim of $7 million, would you not think that the side protesting that you owe $7 million would appear and try to prove it? At my most recent ALJ hearing, no one appeared for the government. Literally, my client – a facility in NJ that serves the MS population – me and the ALJ were the only participants. Are the auditors so falsely confident that they believe their audits speaks for itself?
In this particular case, the questionable issue was whether the MS provider’s consumers met the qualifications for the skilled rehabilitation due to no exacerbated physical issues. However, we all know from the Jimmo settlement, that having exacerbated issues or improvement is not a requirement to requiring skilled rehab versus exercising with your spouse. The ALJ actually said – “I cannot believe this issue has gotten this far.” I agree.
TPE and Prepay Audits: Speak Softly, But Carry a Big Stick
Audits have now resumed to 100% capacity – or even 150% capacity. All audits that were suspended during COVID are reinstated. As you all know, RAC and MAC audits were reinstated back in August. CMS announced that Targeted Probe and Educate (TPE) audits would resume on Sept. 1, 2021. Unlike RAC audits, the stated goal of TPE audits is to help providers reduce claim denials and appeals with one-on-one education, focused on the documentation and coding of the services they provide. However, do not let the stated mission fool you. Failing a TPE audit can result in onerous actions such as 100 percent prepay review, extrapolation, referral to a RAC, or other action, a carefully crafted response to a TPE audit is critical. TPEs can be prepay or post-pay.
Speaking of prepayments, these bad babies are back in full swing. CareSource is one of the companies contracted with CMS to conduct prepayment reviews and urgent care centers seem to be a target. Prepayment review is technically and legally not a penalty; therefore being placed on prepayment review is not appealable. But do not believe these legalities – prepay is Draconian in nature and puts many providers out of business, especially if they fail to seek legal counsel immediately and believe that they will pass without any problem. When it comes to prepay, believing that everything will be ok, is a death trap. Instead get a big stick.
42 CFR §447.45 requires 90% of clean claims to be paid to a provider within 30 days of receipt. 99% must be paid within 90 days. The same regulations mandate the agency to conduct prepayment review of claims to ensure that the claims are not duplicative, the consumer is eligible for Medicare, or that the number of visits and services delivered are logically consistent with the beneficiary’s characteristics and circumstances, such as type of illness, age, sex, and service location. This standard prepayment review is dissimilar from a true prepayment review.
Chapter 3 of the Medicare Program Integrity Manual lays out the rules for a prepayment review audit. The Manual states that MACs shall deal with serious problems using the most substantial administrative actions available, such as 100 percent prepayment review of claims. Minor or isolated inappropriate billing shall be remediated through provider notification or feedback with reevaluation after notification. The new prepay review rules comments closed 9/13/21, so it will take effect soon.
If a 100% prepay is considered the most substantial administrative action, then why is it not considered an appealable sanction? I have, however, been successful in obtaining an injunction enjoining the suspension of payments without appealing being placed on prepay.
When requesting documentation for prepayment review, the MACs and UPICs shall notify providers when they expect documentation to be received. It is normally 30-days. The Manual does not allow for time extensions to providers who need more time to comply with the request. Reviewers shall deny claims when the requested documentation to support payment is not received by the expected timeframe. Any audit, but especially prepay audits can lead to termination under 42 CFR §424.535. You may choose to speak softly, but always carry a big stick.
Instead of Orange, Medicare Advantage Audits Are the New Black
In case you didn’t know, instead of orange, Medicare Advantage is the new black. Since MA plans are paid more for sicker patients, there are huge incentives to fabricate co-morbidities that may or may not exist.
Medicare Advantage will be the next most audited arena. Home health, BH, and the two-midnight rule had held the gold medal for highest number of audits, but MA will soon prevail.
As an example, last week- a New York health insurance plan for seniors, along with amedical analytics company the insurer is affiliated with, was accused by the Justice Department of committing health care fraud to the tune of tens of millions of dollars. The dollar amounts are exceedingly high, which also attracts auditors, especially the auditors who are paid on contingency fee, which is almost all the auditors.
CMS pays Medicare Advantage plans using a complex formula called a “risk score,” which is intended to render higher rates for sicker patients and less for those in good health. The data mining company combed electronic medical records to identify missed diagnoses — pocketing up to 20% of new revenue it generated for the health plan. But the Department of Justice alleges that DxID’s reviews triggered “tens of millions” of dollars in overcharges when those missing diagnoses were filled in with exaggerations of how sick patients were or with charges for medical conditions the patients did not have. “All problems are boring until they’re your own.” – Red
MA plans have grown to now cover more than 40% of all Medicare beneficiaries, so too has fraud and abuse. A 2020 OIG report found that MA paid $2.6 billion a year for diagnoses unrelated to any clinical services.
Diagnoses fraud is the main issue that auditors are focusing on. Juxtapose the other alphabet soup auditors – MACs, SMRCs, UPICs, ZPICs, MCOs, TPEs, RACs – they concentrate on documentation nitpicking. I had a client accused of FWA for using purple ink. “Yeah I said stupid twice, only to emphasize how stupid that is!” – Pennsatucky. Other examples include purported failing of writing the times “in or out” when the CPT code definition includes the amount of time.
Audits will be ramping up, especially since HHS has reduced the Medicare appeals backlog at the Administrative Judge Level by 79 percent, which puts the department on track to clear the backlog by the end of the 2022 fiscal year.
As of June 30, 2021, the end of the third quarter of FY 2021, HHS had 86,063 pending appeals remaining at OMHA, according to the latest status report, acquired by the American Hospital Association. The department started with 426,594 appeals. This is progress!!
Medicare Appeals: Time Is of the Essence!
Timing is everything. Missing a deadline germane to any type of Medicare or Medicaid audit is deadly. Miss an appeal deadline by one, single day, and you lose your right to appeal an overpayment.
If anyone has watched Schitt’s Creek, then you know that when Johnny and Moira Rose missed their deadline to file for and pay taxes, they lost their mansion, their money, and way of life. The same catastrophic loss can occur if a provider misses an appeal deadline. Then that provider will be up Schitt’s Creek.
Importantly, when it comes to Medicare appeals, your appeal is due 60 days after the reconsideration review decision. 42 CFR § 405.1014 – Request for an ALJ hearing or a review of a QIC dismissal. A third-level, Medicare provider appeal is considered “filed” upon receipt of the complete appeal at the Office of Medicare Hearings and Appeals, instead of the normal standard acceptance that an appeal is filed upon the mailing stamped date. As in, once you mail your appeal, it will be retroactively filed per the date of mailing. Not true for the third-level, Medicare provider appeal. It is considered filed the date of receipt.
Also, the regulatory clock starts ticking 5 days after the date the of the reconsideration review decision, because, the thought is that the U.S. Post Office will not take more than 5 days to deliver correspondence. Well, that assumption nowadays is inaccurate. The Post Office is a mess, and that’s an understatement. My friend, Dr. Ronald Hirsh told me that his overnighted packages have been received weeks later. More times than not, mail is received weeks after it was mailed, which makes the date of delivery imperative. Yet this regulation forces you to rely on the U.S. Post Office; it makes no logical sense.
We actually had a case in which the ALJ dismissed our appeal because the Post Office delivered the appeal on the 61st day after the reconsideration review decision, including the 5 days window. Literally, the 61st day. The reason that the appeal was received on the 61st day is because the 60th day fell on a holiday, a weekend, or a closure due to COVID – I cannot recall – but OMHA was closed. The mail delivery person had to return the next day to deliver the appeal. Yet, our appeal was dismissed based on the US Post Office! We filed a Motion to Reconsider, but the ALJ denied it. Our only chance at presenting to the ALJ was squashed – due to the Post Office.
We appealed the ALJ’s denial to the Medicare Appeals Council with hope of reasonableness. We have no decision yet. It certainly makes me want to say: Eww, David!
