Enrollment opens for Audit Key
By Tracy Orzel
Updated Fri March 20, 2015
WASHINGTON - Providers can register for AAHomecare's HME Audit Key starting in April.
“We're hoping to sign up several hundred providers,” said Kim Brummett, vice president of regulatory affairs for the association.
AAHomecare launched the HME Audit Key in 2014 to track audit activity in the HME industry and present those findings to policymakers.
Starting in May, providers that have registered will be able to use a secure electronic form to anonymously answer questions about audits, including who they're being audited by; how many audits they have at the redetermination, reconsideration and ALJ levels; and how many appeals they've won.
“(The system) is intuitive,” said Judy Bunn, compliance manager at Medical Service Company in Cleveland, who also sits on AAHomecare's Regulatory Committee Audit Task Force. “Audits impact the ability to collect reimbursement and I would think that every supplier would already be tracking these.”
The goal is reform, specifically the ability of auditors to use clinical inference, said Laura Williard, senior director of regulatory affairs, compliance, and contracting for Greensboro, N.C.-based Advanced Home Care, who also sits on AAHomecare's Regulatory Committee Audit Task Force.
“Some of these denials are for basic technical reasons that don't negate the medical necessity,” she said.
AAHomecare plans to share results.
“To be able to make comparisons from company to company, region to region, DME MAC to DME MAC, I think it will be really eye-opening for a lot of people,” said Brummett.
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