Friday, February 27, 2009

Medicare RAC Audit Preparation By Fortson Billing Identifies And Corrects Errors, Saving Thousands

Fortson Professional Services announced the launch of a new service for physicians, home health agencies, hospitals and durable medical equipment providers in preparation for the upcoming Medicare audit by the RACs.

"The RAC audits are a big issue right now in the medical community," says Marylyn Fortson, President of Fortson Professional Services. "Anyone who files claims with Medicare probably has at least a little bit of concern about what the RACs might find when they audit their practice. The RACs are compensated to find errors, so you can be sure they will be aggressive. Even a little technicality could end up costing a physician thousands of dollars. That's where we can help."

A detailed, comprehensive base-line audit in advance of the RAC is intended to assist the provider identify and correct errors in the current billing and coding, and to make recommendations for areas of improvement. By catching errors well in advance, a practice can save thousands of dollars in Medicare overpayments.

Fortson Billing will do an audit of a random sample of patient files. Audits are done by certified coders who have extensive experience in coding as well as government audits. For details of how the process works and what is needed, contact Fortson.

"The cost of doing a review independent of the Medicare RACs is minimal when you consider that not knowing what the audit contractors are going to find could cost you thousands," Fortson says. "What's more, around 15% of the providers out there may find that they are being underpaid by Medicare due to improper coding. Believe it or not, Medicare is not only looking to recover money, but to pay back underpayments as well."

Fortson Professional Services is a medical practice management company specializing in improving the cash-flow of medical practices. Contact us to learn more about the Medicare audit.