SMRC Review Activities
Published on
Wednesday, April 20, 2022
Did You Know?
The Supplemental Medical Review Contractor’s (SMRC) activities are aimed at lowering Medicare Fee-for-Service (FFS) improper payment rates and increasing efficiencies of the medical review (MR) functions of Medicare. The Department of Health and Human Services Fiscal Year 2022 Justification of Estimates for Appropriations Committees (link) details goals for MR activities in the CMS Fiscal Year (FY) 2022, for example:
- For FY 2022, the request for funding for MR activities was $96.7 million, an increase by $50.5 million above the FY 2021 amount, and
- CMS expects the SMRC alone will review 792,800 claims in FY 2022, an increase from 80,197 claims in FY 2020.
Why it Matters?
Noridian Healthcare Solutions is the current SMRC (link) who performs nationwide reviews of Medicaid, Medicare Part A/B, and DMEPOS claims for compliance with coverage, coding, payment, and billing requirements.
Current Projects
As of April 7, 2022, the SMRC has twenty-five “Current Projects” listed on their website. Twelve of these have been added to their workload in CY 2022.
Completed Projects
To date, in CY 2022, the SMRC has posted project results for the following five projects:
- 01-030: Botulinum Toxins – Medicare Part B Review: Error Rate 66%,
- 01-036: Hospice Portfolio: Error Rates 29% and 47%,
- 01-038: Facility Chronic Care Management (CCM): Error Rate 99%,
- 01-044: Therapy Reviews: Error Rate 31%, and
- 01-046: Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility (IRF) Stays Longer Length of Stay: Error Rate 54%.
What Can You Do?
First, be sure to respond to medical record requests from the SMRC as in general, common reasons for denial for a project will include the reason “no response to documentation request.” Also, take the time to read Noridian’s medical review findings for completed projects. Noridian’s review findings include a background about the review target, the reason the review was performed, common reasons for denial and any applicable references/resources (i.e., Federal Register, CMS Internet Only Manual (IOM), OIG reports, and National and Local Coverage Documents).
