The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has temporarily canceled activity involving four new contractors in its Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) program due to complaints received from two companies that were not awarded contracts.
On October 6, CMS officials awarded regional RAC contracts to Diversified Collection Services, Inc. of Livermore, Calif., CGI Technologies and Solutions, Inc. of Fairfax, Va., Connolly Consulting Associates, Inc. of Wilton, Conn., and HealthDataInsights, Inc. of Las Vegas. The contractors were to begin work in phases throughout 2009.
According to CMS spokesman Peter Ashkenaz, CMS received notice from the General Accountability Office that Viant, Inc. and PRG Schultz Ð two companies not selected to be RAC contractors Ð are protesting the awards.
"An automatic stay of performance of all four RAC region awards is required under the Competition and Contracting Act (CICA)," Ashkenaz said. "That means that all work on the RAC contracts is required to stop until further notice (this includes outreach meetings). GAO has 100 days to issue a decision. The RAC contracts are suspended pending the outcome of the two protests."
According to a July report by CMS, the government recovered nearly $700 million in improper Medicare payments through its RAC pilot program, conducted from 2005 to 2008 in five states.
Some lawmakers challenged the program, saying RACs are paid to find overpayments, which would affect their impartiality. House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell (D-Mich.) and Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) called for a GAO evaluation of the program last summer.
The Healthcare Association of New York State announced Monday that RAC training sessions, planned for November 6 at offices and other locations across the state, have been cancelled by CMS.
CMS had scheduled RAC training sessions to educate providers on the audit process in New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, Rhode Island, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, South Carolina, Colorado, Florida, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, North Dakota and Arizona before the end of the year.