News Room

SOURCE: RACMonitor, LLC

December 04, 2008 05:00 ET

New Website to Help Hospitals Deal With CMS Recovery Audit Contractors

TAMPA, FL--(Marketwire - December 4, 2008) - An Internet portal designed to provide hospitals and health systems with a single source for the latest news and information, on The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Recovery Auditor Contractor (RAC) program, is rolling out this week at www.racmonitor.com.

A special feature of racmonitor.com is the publication of a bi-weekly e-newsletter, RACMonitor.Enews. An editorial board composed of leading authorities on RAC-related issues including compliance, reimbursement, coding and documentation, will provide the content.

"These experts, plus others, are featured in our bi-weekly e-newsletter," says Chuck Buck, president and CEO of RACMonitor, LLC, publishers of the Website and its e-newsletter. "Other stories and sidebars, along with RSS feeds and RAC alerts will be carried on the Website."

In addition, racmonitor.com plans to offer monthly Webcasts and will create opportunities for online discussions with the community that they can field questions.

"A cornerstone of the Website is RAC University™," says Mr. Buck. "Here, subscribers can purchase and download one or a series of especially prepared Webcasts on RACs. The series is produced by eduTrax®.

Other features include the following: 

--  RACResources, where registered visitors can post job listings or look
    for career opportunities in healthcare;
    
--  RACAlerts, whereby subscribers receive automatic email notifications
    of RAC-related activities and news breaking situations; and
    
--  RACByState™, an animated map of the U.S., showing RAC activities
    taking place in individual states.

"Taken together, we believe that RACMonitor is the single most important source for RAC news and information," says Mr. Buck.

About RACMonitor

RACMonitor, LLC, was formed to bring together healthcare providers who are looking for solutions to help them deal effectively with issues arising from the Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) program that was mandated by Congress with solutions and tools from established healthcare vendors.

About the Recovery Audit Contractors

Section 306 of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA), Congress directed the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to conduct a 3-year demonstration program using Recovery Audit Contractors (RACs) to detect and correct improper payments in the Medicare FFS program. The Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) demonstration program was designed to determine whether the use of RACs will be a cost-effective means of adding resources to ensure correct payments are being made to providers and suppliers and, therefore, protect the Medicare Trust Fund. The demonstration operated in New York, Massachusetts, Florida, South Carolina and California and ended on March 27, 2008. Based on RAC demonstration program, improper payments were identified in excess of $1.03 billion. Although a stay was placed on rolling out a permanent RAC program on November 4, 2008 by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), arising from a dispute among prospective contractors, CMS is expected to resume the program in February 2009.

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