California Counties Await Ruling on Medicare Claim

[CAL/AAEM News Service]

California Counties Await Ruling on Medicare Claim
 
Source: California Healthline (http://www.californiahealthline.org)
Date: April 18, 2007


Five California counties are awaiting a federal ruling on a claim against HHS that seeks
to recover $280 million in underpaid Medicare reimbursements, KQED's "The California
Report" radio program reports. 

According to the claim, Medicare underpays health care providers in those counties
because HHS classifies the regions as rural rather than urban areas, where payments are
higher to account for higher cost-of-living estimates and other factors.

The counties maintain that current reimbursement rates make it difficult to recruit and
retain physicians in the lower-paid areas (Vargas, "The California Report," KQED, 4/17).

The counties include: 

Santa Barbara; 
Santa Cruz; 
San Diego; 
Marin; and 
Sonoma.

They are pursuing the payments with other counties nationwide as part of a claim that
seeks to recover $2.4 billion in Medicare underpayments for providers over the past six
years (California Healthline, 4/4). 

The counties are awaiting a ruling from Medicare officials. A Medicare spokesperson said
HHS cannot comment on the pending claims.


For more information, please visit: 
http://www.californiahealthline.org/articles/2007/4/18/California-Counties-Await-Ruling-on-Medicare-Claim.aspx



Cyrus Shahpar & Brian Potts 
Managing Editors, CAL/AAEM News Service
University of California, Irvine

The CAL/AAEM Archives are available at: http://maillists.uci.edu/mailman/public/calaaem/


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