Medicare program; "without fault" and waiver of recovery from an individual as it applies to Medicare overpayment liability--HCFA. Proposed rule.
This rule would amend the Medicare regulations governing liability for overpayments to eliminate application of certain regulations of the Social Security Administration and to replace them with HCFA regulations more specific to circumstances involving Medicare overpayments. The following specific changes are included in this rule. Explicit criteria and the circumstances under which a provider or supplier can be relieved of liability for an overpayment on the basis of being "without fault" with respect to the overpayment. Specific criteria and circumstances of the conditions under which a waiver of recovery for Medicare overpayments would apply to individuals. A provision to ordinarily consider it inequitable to recover an overpayment from a without-fault individual when an overpayment is made to a without-fault provider. Specific provisions that enable Medicare intermediaries and carriers to determine without fault in Medicare overpayments resulting from Medicare secondary payer conditional payments. Provisions that grant Peer Review Organizations the authority to make without-fault determinations. Provisions for an administrative appeals process for providers and suppliers with regard to a "not-without-fault" determination. We expect this rule would prevent some providers and suppliers from claiming without-fault status. This could reduce the number of overpayment liabilities passed on to individuals and result in a slight increase in the amount of money recovered.
D000368:Aged; D014487:Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, U.S.; D003669:Deductibles and Coinsurance / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D006801:Humans; D007349:Insurance, Health, Reimbursement / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D016365:Liability, Legal / Q000191:economics*; D006278:Medicare / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D014146:Training Support; D014481:United States