Medicare Officials Shoot To Resolve Payment Backlog by End of Year
Medicare hopes to resolve a backlog of payments to physicians in California, Nevada and Hawaii by Dec. 31, Eileen Turner, financial oversight and reimbursement branch manager for Medicare, said on Monday, the Santa Cruz Sentinel reports.
The payment delays come after Medicare made two substantial changes this year.
In May, Medicare began requiring physicians to use a new identification number for reimbursement. Then in September, the agency moved its claims processing contract for California, Nevada and Hawaii to Palmetto, a South Carolina-based firm.
More than 90,000 California health care providers were affected by the changes.
In response to complaints of millions of dollars in payments being delayed, Turner said providers who are having financial difficulties could ask Medicare to advance payments. No interest will be charged, she added (Gumz, Santa Cruz Sentinel, 12/4). This is part of the California Healthline Daily Edition, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.