I'm spending Thursday and Friday in Washington, D.C., attending the National Medicare RAC Summit at the Renaissance Hotel near Mount Vernon Square.
And it's been ever so much fun to witness hospital administrators vent at greedy auditors.
Perhaps I exaggerate. But only slightly.
In all seriousness, the folks in the financial offices at acute care hospitals don't think too highly of the recovery audit contractors (RACs) that are poised to review their Medicare claims with the hopes of finding ones to deny.
One particularly enlightening session at the RAC Summit brought together three hospital finance officials whose organizations were part of the Medicare RAC Demonstration project.
The administrators spoke about "lessons learned" from the RAC experience, and it appears their knowledge was hard won.
Stewart Pressler, Vice President for Patient Financial Resources with the Greater New York Hospital Association and moderator of the discussion, said he was convinced that acute care hospitals would be the primary targets of Medicare RAC audits, as "that's where the money is."
Karen Feeley, Director of Network Patient Financial Services at Manhattan's NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital agreed, speculating that physician practices had much less cause to worry, given her hospital's experience in the Demo. On the other hand, hospitals will feel the pain of RAC, especially if they lack an electronic platform linking contractor and provider.
"Paper is a nightmare," Feeley said.
She added that NewYork-Presbyterian struggled mightily with inpatient coding issues, outpatient billing guidelines and unanswered questions from CMS.
Make you feel any better about the fast-approaching Medicare RAC experience?
Shannon McGee, Director of Patient Financial Services at Florida Hospital in Orlando, Fla., will do little to ease your mind. She stated flatly that her healthcare system "suffered under RAC."
Florida Hospital had 7,672 claims audited between 2006-2008. Over three thousand of these claims (39.5 percent) were denied by the RAC. To make matters worse, McGee said the RAC appeal process is lengthy and frustrating.
Lynn Grieves, the Chief Compliance Officer for MemorialCare Medical Centers in southern California, even questioned the motives of RACs.
"The RACs are for-profit organizations," Grieves said. "They are going to do what they can to maximize their profits."
Seems like the Medicare RAC process is crying out for reform - and it hasn't even begun in earnest.