Why OIG Did This Review
“We undertook this study because of concerns that MAOs may use chart reviews to increase risk-adjusted payments inappropriately. Unsupported risk-adjusted payments are a major driver of improper payments in the MA program, which provided coverage to 21million beneficiaries in 2018 at a cost of $210 billion…”
What OIG Found
“Our findings highlight potential issues about the extent to which chart reviews are leveraged by MAOs and overseen by CMS. Based on our analysis of MA encounter data, we found that:
- MAOs almost always used chart reviews as a tool to add, rather than to delete, diagnoses—over 99 percent of chart reviews in our review added diagnoses.
- Diagnoses that MAOs reported only on chart reviews—and not on any service records—resulted in an estimated $6.7 billion in risk-adjusted payments for 2017.
- CMS based an estimated $2.7 billion in risk-adjusted payments on chart review diagnoses that MAOs did not link to a specific service provided to the beneficiary―much less a face-to-face visit.
- Although limited to a small number of beneficiaries, almost half of MAOs reviewed had payments from unlinked chart reviews where there was not a single record of a service being provided to the beneficiary in all of 2016.”
“These findings raise three types of potential concerns. First, there may be a data integrity concern that MAOs are not submitting all service records as required. Second, there may be a payment integrity concern if diagnoses are inaccurate or unsupported—making the associated risk-adjusted payments inappropriate. Third, there may be a quality-of-care concern that beneficiaries are not receiving needed services for potentially serious diagnoses listed on chart reviews, but with no service records.”
What OIG Recommends
“We recommend that CMS (1) provide targeted oversight of MAOs that had risk-adjusted payments resulting from unlinked chart reviews for beneficiaries who had no service records in the 2016 encounter data, (2) conduct audits that validate diagnoses reported on chart reviews in the MA encounter data, and (3) reassess the risks and benefits of allowing chart reviews that are not linked to service records to be used as sources of diagnoses for risk adjustment. CMS concurred with these recommendations…”
Access the full 44-page report here.
Source: Billions in Estimated Medicare Advantage Payments from Chart Reviews Raise Concerns – December 2019. HHS OIG.
