Take the CMA survey about Medicare audits

The California Medical Association (CMA) has posted a survey to find out how the Medicare audits are affecting physician practices.

On December 3, 2011, CMA President James T. Hay, M.D., sent a letter to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) regarding the multitude of medical review records requested of physicians by Palmetto, the Medicare administrative contractor for California. In the letter, Dr. Hay expressed members’ concerns about the volume of requests and the tone of the audit letters. In addition, Palmetto is also delaying payment to physicians for claims associated with the medical records and threatening physicians with further action.

If your office has received requests for medical records from Palmetto, please let us know the impact by taking a moment to complete a brief survey. The results will assist us in our discussion points with CMS. The deadline for completion of the survey is February 3, 2012.

CMA continues to work with Palmetto and CMS so they understand the burden of locating, copying and mailing off the requested patient records.

Contact: Michele Kelly, (213) 226-0338 or economicservices@cmanet.org.