COVER STORY
TMA's vigilance thwarts Medicare gaffes...
The missteps also come as Congress considers a major overhaul to a program that continues to frustrate physicians and threaten access to care. Earlier this year, Medicare printed incorrect patient responsibility amounts for claims submitted by non-participating physicians. Meanwhile, despite medicine's warnings against it, Medicare proceeded with audits of the Physician Quality Reporting System. Only the "survey" letters physicians received shrouded the fact that they were, in fact, audits, at the same time threatening recoupment for nonparticipation even though they are voluntary. TMA alerted Medicare and the AMA of the issue, and it seems the collaboration is leading to a fix to clarify the language in the audit requests.
