Study: 40 percent of hospitals expect to owe money to Medicare under RAC

It seems like people aren't very optimistic about their chances of escaping a Recovery Audit Contractor review unscathed, according to a new study.  The study, done on behalf of Wolters Kluwer Health, concluded that 40 percent of hospital HIT directors expect to owe funds for Medicare overpayments if audited. The survey found that only 5 percent of HIT directors surveyed think that RAC audits will lead to repayment of funds from Medicare underpayments. Forty-eight percent expect their facility to come out more or less even.

Of the total, 81 percent of the HIT directors said their facilities were working to improve Medicare claims accuracy, including conducting internal audits (77 percent), implementing a documentation improvement plan (66 percent) or creating a special task force to examine documentation, coding and billing practices (57 percent). Meanwhile, 33 percent of hospitals preparing for RAC have installed new software to better capture the right documentation, coding and billing.

To learn more about the study:
- read this Healthcare Finance News piece

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