RAC Protest Resolved: Audit Work Will Now Resume
This post was written by Jason M. Healy.
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services ("CMS") states that on February 4, 2009 the parties involved in the protest of the award of the Recovery Audit Contractor ("RAC") contracts settled the protests filed with the GAO.
The settlement means that the stop work order has been lifted and CMS will now continue with the implementation of the RAC program.
Under the program, the four RACs will contract with subcontractors to supplement their efforts. PRG-Schultz, Inc. will serve as a subcontractor to HDI, DCS and CGI in regions A, B and D. Viant Payment Systems, Inc. will serve as a subcontractor to Connolly Consulting in region C. Each subcontractor has negotiated different responsibilities in each region, including some claim review.
According to the CMS Notice, the RAC in each jurisdiction is as follows:
Region A: Diversified Collection Services (DCS)
Region B: CGI
Region C: Connolly Consulting, Inc.
Region D: HealthDataInsights, Inc.
All correspondence, websites and call centers will be in the name of the RACs listed above.
Will the new administration's initiative to change government contracting have an impact on RAC?
It's unclear whether the health care and government contracting reform initiatives of the Obama Administration will affect the RAC program. I think that minor adjustments are not out of the question. The President's State of the Union address emphasized rooting out fraud, waste and abuse in the Medicare program. Since the RAC program was designed to identify erroneous Medicare payments, I do not expect the RAC program will be scaled back or eliminated by the new Administration.