Thursday, December 10, 2009

New Limits Set on RAC Medical Record Requests


The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has modified the additional documentation request limits for the RAC (Recovery Audit Contractor) program in FY10. These limits will be set by each RAC on an annual basis to establish a cap per campus on the maximum number of medical records that may be requested per 45-day period. A campus unit may consist of one or more separate facilities/practices under a single organizational umbrella; each limit will be based on that unit’s prior calendar year Medicare claims volume.Limits will be based on the servicing provider/supplier’s Tax Identification Number (TIN) and the first three positions of the zip code where they are physically located. Using TINs will reduce the total number of limits that would have been imposed per organization under the previous draft policy, which was based on National Provider Identifiers, while zip codes are factored in to promote equitability for regional or national organizations.
Limits will be set at 1 percent of all claims submitted for the previous calendar year (2008), divided into eight periods (45 days). Although the RACs may go more than 45 days between record requests, in no case shall they make requests more frequently than every 45 days
Read the CMS notice.

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