Medicare Benefit plans and suppliers want to pay attention to the current improve in authorities enforcement of threat adjustment coding points. Up to now few years, the Workplace of the Inspector Basic (OIG) and the Division of Justice (DOJ) have centered on threat adjustment coding as an space vulnerable to fraud which can possible proceed into 2022. See beneath for an summary of threat adjustment coding, current enforcement examples, and 5 ideas for suppliers to assist guarantee correct coding.
Danger Adjustment
Below the Medicare Benefit program, the Facilities for Medicare & Medicaid Providers (CMS) pays Medicare Benefit organizations (MAOs) a set per enrollee monthly (PEPM) quantity. For every enrollee, CMS adjusts the PEPM utilizing diagnoses and demographics to find out a threat rating which is meant to foretell how a lot such enrollee’s well being care will price for the plan 12 months. With the intention to calculate the danger rating for an enrollee, CMS makes use of the diagnostic codes submitted by the enrollee’s well being care suppliers. Finally, CMS pays the MAO extra for enrollees with larger threat scores and fewer for enrollees with decrease threat scores.
Since a better threat rating means a larger fee, there may be an incentive for sure suppliers (relying on how they’re paid by an MAO) to inflate threat scores which may result in overpayments from CMS and probably False Claims Act legal responsibility.
Current Examples
Under are a number of current examples of the DOJ and OIG cracking down on improper threat adjustment coding:
- In January of 2022, the OIG launched a report inspecting funds to an MAO and its suppliers. This audit discovered quite a few upcoding points by the MAO’s suppliers that weren’t supported by the medical data and resulted in web overpayments to the MAO for over $500,000.
- In October of 2021, Sutter Well being, in its position as a supplier, settled a False Claims Act case for $90 million for knowingly submitting inaccurate analysis codes. Sutter allegedly had a number of aggressive applications that finally resulted within the submission of unsupported diagnoses.
- Additionally in October of 2021, the DOJ filed a grievance in opposition to Kaiser Permanente for allegedly defrauding CMS of $1 billion by pressuring physicians to retrospectively add roughly half one million analysis codes to sufferers’ medical data that had been non-existent or unrelated to the go to. This stress was accompanied by monetary incentives and rewards to the physicians.
- In September of 2021, the OIG launched a report that indicated that chart opinions and well being threat assessments had been being utilized by MAOs to inflate threat scores.
- In September of 2021, the DOJ filed a False Claims Act lawsuit in opposition to Unbiased Well being for forming an affiliate firm to conduct retrospective opinions of medical data to seize extra analysis codes. This affiliate firm allegedly submitted varieties to the suppliers requesting signatures on extra analysis codes that weren’t supported within the medical data.
- In March of 2020, the DOJ filed a False Claims Act go well with in opposition to Anthem for failure to conduct two-way medical chart opinions. Anthem allegedly used chart opinions to establish and submit extra analysis codes however didn’t delete beforehand submitted codes that weren’t supported by the overview inflicting to overpayments from CMS.
5 Suggestions for Suppliers
Under are high-level ideas for suppliers to assist guarantee correct risk-adjustment coding:
- Implement insurance policies and procedures and teaching programs to make sure coding follows ICD-10 pointers and CMS steering.
- Pay attention to potential points associated to coding from drawback lists, applications that mine knowledge for diagnoses and/or pre-populate analysis codes, and incentives or rewards to suppliers associated to submission of diagnoses and/or scheduling assessments.
- If the supplier opinions charts for lacking diagnoses, make sure the overview additionally identifies analysis codes that ought to be deleted from the sufferers’ data.
- Implement strong auditing processes to watch coding practices.
- Take corrective actions with respect to suppliers that report unsupported diagnoses.
Nicole Jobe is a companion in Thompson Coburn’s Well being Legislation Observe Group. Catherine Feorene is an affiliate in Thompson Coburn’s Well being Legislation Observe Group.
