Medicare Improper Payment Report (2016)

September 1st, 2017 - Wyn Staheli

Categories: Medicare Practice Management

The Medicare Improper Payment Report for 2016 has been released by the OIG. Please note that the improper payment rate does not measure fraud. Rather, it estimates the payments that did not meet Medicare coverage, coding, and billing rules. The estimated Medicare FFS payment accuracy rate (claims paid correctly) from July 1, 2014 through June 30, 2015, was 89.0 percent. The estimated improper payment rate (claims paid incorrectly) was 11.0 percent which is a decrease from last years 12.1 percent rate.

As with most years, the biggest problem was the lack of documentation (64 percent of improper payments) to support the services or supplies billed. It should be noted that although those numbers have decreased from last year, there is still room for improvement. The following table from this report summarizes the problems by various categories and claim types.

Table A2: Comparison of 2015 and 2016 National Improper Payment Rates by Error Category (Adjusted for Impact of A/B Rebilling)

	2015	2016
Error Category	Total	Total	Part A Excluding Hospital IPPS	Part A Hospital IPPS	Part B	DMEPOS
No Documentation	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
Insufficient Documentation	8.1%	7.2%	4.2%	0.1%	2.0%	0.8%
Medical Necessity	2.1%	2.2%	1.4%	0.7%	0.1%	0.0%
Incorrect Coding	1.3%	1.1%	0.1%	0.3%	0.7%	0.0%
Other	0.4%	0.4%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.2%
TOTAL	12.1%	11.0%	5.9%	1.2%	2.9%	1.0%

To review information pertaining to your specialty, open the report found in the link in the "References" section below. It is a PDF file so you can search for information on your specialty by using [Ctrl]+[F] to look for key terms like DME or "Family Practice".

###

Questions, comments?

If you have questions or comments about this article please contact us. Comments that provide additional related information may be added here by our Editors.

Latest articles: (any category)

Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare - A Medical Coder's Perspective
December 26th, 2023 - Aimee Wilcox

We constantly hear how AI is creeping into every aspect of healthcare but what does that mean for medical coders and how can we better understand the language used in the codeset? Will AI take my place or will I learn with it and become an integral part of the process that uses AI to enhance my abilities?

Specialization: Your Advantage as a Medical Coding Contractor
December 22nd, 2023 - Find-A-Code

Medical coding contractors offer a valuable service to healthcare providers who would rather outsource coding and billing rather than handling things in-house. Some contractors are better than others, but there is one thing they all have in common: the need to present some sort of value proposition in order to land new clients. As a contractor, your value proposition is the advantage you offer. And that advantage is specialization.

ICD-10-CM Coding of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)
December 19th, 2023 - Aimee Wilcox

Chronic respiratory disease is on the top 10 chronic disease list published by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Although it is a chronic condition, it may be stable for some time and then suddenly become exacerbated and even impacted by another acute respiratory illness, such as bronchitis, RSV, or COVID-19. Understanding the nuances associated with the condition and how to properly assign ICD-10-CM codes is beneficial.

Changes to COVID-19 Vaccines Strike Again
December 12th, 2023 - Aimee Wilcox

According to the FDA, CDC, and other alphabet soup entities, the old COVID-19 vaccines are no longer able to treat the variants experienced today so new vaccines have been given the emergency use authorization to take the place of the old vaccines. No sooner was the updated 2024 CPT codebook published when 50 of the codes in it were deleted, some of which were being newly added for 2024.

Updated ICD-10-CM Codes for Appendicitis
November 14th, 2023 - Aimee Wilcox

With approximately 250,000 cases of acute appendicitis diagnosed annually in the United States, coding updates were made to ensure high-specificity coding could be achieved when reporting these diagnoses. While appendicitis almost equally affects both men and women, the type of appendicitis varies, as dose the risk of infection, sepsis, and perforation.

COVID Vaccine Coding Changes as of November 1, 2023
October 26th, 2023 - Wyn Staheli

COVID vaccine changes due to the end of the PHE as of November 1, 2023 are addressed in this article.

Medicare Guidance Changes for E/M Services
October 11th, 2023 - Wyn Staheli

2023 brought quite a few changes to Evaluation and management (E/M) services. The significant revisions as noted in the CPT codebook were welcome changes to bring other E/M services more in line with the changes that took place with Office or Other Outpatient Services a few years ago. As part of CMS’ Medicare Learning Network, the “Evaluation and Management Services Guide” publication was finally updated as of August 2023 to include the changes that took place in 2023. If you take a look at the new publication (see references below),....