In February 2012, two years after the passage of the Affordable Care Act ("ACA"), the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services ("CMS") issued a proposed rule, which was subject to significant public comment, concerning reporting and returning certain Medicare overpayments ("Proposed Rule"). On February 12, 2016, four years from the issuance of the Proposed Rule (and six years after passage of the ACA), CMS issued the final rule, which becomes effective on March 14, 2016 ("A and B Final Rule").
The A and B Final Rule applies only to providers and suppliers under Medicare Parts A and B. The return of overpayments under Medicare Parts C and D are addressed in a final rule that was published by CMS in May 2014 ("C and D Final Rule"). To date, no final regulations have been adopted that address Medicaid requirements.
Among other things, the A and B Final Rule and its preamble provide:
- a six-year lookback period;
- that providers and suppliers must exercise "reasonable diligence" in connection with identifying potential overpayments;
- that the time period to conduct "reasonable diligence" should be no more than six months, except in extraordinary circumstances; and
- that "identification" includes quantifying the amount of the overpayment.
Kirsten M. Backstrom, George B. Breen, Anjali N.C. Downs, David E. Matyas, and Meghan F. Weinberg coauthored a Health Care and Life Sciences Client Alert that addresses a number of the significant provisions of the A and B Final Rule, describes an important difference between the two final rules, and sets forth a list of nine key "takeaways" that we believe all Medicare providers and suppliers should be aware of.
Click here to read the full Health Care and Life Sciences Client Alert.