Providers were overpaid by nearly $7 million between 2006 and 2009, according to the audit results released Aug. 17 from the Office of the Inspector General for the Medicare Administrative Contractor (MAC) Highmark.

The OIG found that 68% of 1,507 selected claims processed by Highmark, the MAC for Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey and the District of Columbia metro area were incorrectly paid for outpatient services between Jan. 1, 2006 and June 30, 2009.

Providers had not refunded any of the overpaid funds by the start of the OIG’s investigation, according to the report.

When you attest to having met meaningful use with your EHR, a CMS computer system does a fast, cursory check and then sets the gears in motion to deliver your bonus check, agency officials said during an Aug. 18 open door call. A CMS computer system “almost instantly” calculates attestation results entered on the EHR Incentive Program Registration and Attestation System website, said Travis Broome, an agency official. What’s more, right now there is no real fact-checking going on; as long as the attestation data meets the thresholds, the attestation is successful, he said.

HHS revealed a sample of insurance forms Wednesday that private payers will have to mimic as part of health reform to help customers understand and choose their coverage, according to an HHS news release.  

The forms are part of a set of proposed rules, not set would not take effect until 2012, that would have payers provide literature to currently enrolled and window-shopping customers outlining benefit plans in plain language as well as offer a standardized glossary of commonly used terms like “copay” and “deductible,” without fine print (text is not to be smaller than 12-pt. font).

Your peers across wide swaths of the country are seeing financial losses, while average physician compensation increased only 2.4% in 2010, according to a recent survey by the American Medical Group Association (AMGA). The data is very similar to 2010 findings by another major physician advocacy group, the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA). Compared to 2.4% for the AMGA, our analysis of MGMA’s member survey showed a roughly 2.2% increase in average physician compensation in 2010.

HHS released three proposed rules Aug. 12 on establishing Affordable Insurance Exchanges (AIEs) as part of a team effort with the U.S Treasury department to increase patient access to care, according to a CMS news release.

Remember: AIEs were created by health reform and will begin coverage in 2014. To date, HHS has granted $185 million to 13 states and Washington, D.C. to go toward constructing AIEs.

“Today we’re laying the foundation to provide tax incentives to help working families purchase health insurance,” said Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.   “This new tax credit brings us a big step closer to achieving one of the signature goals of the Affordable Care Act – to provide tens of millions of Americans with access to affordable health insurance coverage.”