Medicare Recovery Audit Contractors (RACs) are now in good company since HHS finalized a rule Sept. 14 establishing the Medicaid RAC program Building on the Medicare Recovery Audit Contractor program. The program, effective Jan. 1, 2012, vows to save CMS $2.1 billion in fraudulent funding over the next five years, nearly half of which will be returned directly to the States.
“Today we are building on an already successful program that targets improper payments in our health care programs and recovers those dollars, making Medicare and Medicaid more reliable and responsible,” said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius in a news release. “We simply can't afford to see even one penny of our health care dollars wasted and expanding this program will help us reach that goal.”
CMS has recovered almost $700 million through Medicare RAC program so far this year, according to the release. Medicaid RACs will get 10% of recovered funds just, same as their Medicare counterparts, the rule says.
You can read the rule in its entirety at http://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2011/09/16/2011-23695/medicaid-program-recovery-audit-contractors#p-3.