Wilmington, NC (PRWEB) June 21, 2009 -- Atlantic Financial Consulting launches a nationwide physician coding and documentation audit service to help practices prepare for the Medicare Recovery Audit Contractor audits.

With Medicare audits on the rise due to the Medicare Recovery Audit Contractor (RACs) audits that have been implemented in all 50 states by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), it's essential that physician practices have a compliance plan in place and that they are properly coding and documenting their patient encounters in accordance with Medicare guidelines.    Dallas L Alford IV, CPA and owner of Atlantic Financial Consulting, a medical billing service and practice management consulting firm located in Wilmington, NC explains that having a third party audit of your practice's coding and documentation can pin point potential audit risks that your practice may have.

In Section 306 of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA), Congress directed the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to conduct a 3-year demonstration program using Recovery Audit Contractors (RACs) to detect and correct improper payments in the Medicare program. The demonstration operated in California, New York, and Florida and succeeded in correcting more than $1.03 billion of Medicare improper payments. Approximately 96% of these were overpayments collected from providers.

Section 302 of the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006 made the RAC audits permanent and required the RAC auditors to expand the program to all 50 states.

Mr. Alford explained that the RAC audits are going to be around for a while so it is critical that your practice have a third party independent audit performed on your coding and documentation to make sure your practice is compliant with CMS rules and regulations. He stated that any organization that bills Medicare could potentially face an audit and needs to be prepared should they be selected.

He stated that the results of an audit on an organization that is unprepared could be a financial disaster because any overpaid claims that are identified by RACs are collected by off setting future payments from Medicare. Organizations are also charged penalties and interest for overpaid claims that are identified.

He went on to explain that his firm has a team of coders that are certified by both the American Academy of Professional Coders and the American Health Information Association and have coding backgrounds that are specialty specific and can audit any specialty such as Cardiology, Orthopedic, Rheumatology, Home Health Care, and Inpatient Hospital. He noted that some of his senior audit team members even worked as RAC auditors in the past and has seen both sides of the spectrum.

His firm utilizes HIPAA compliant technology where patient charts are faxed to their audit team and stored on a secure database so that certified coders can review the documentation to identify any compliance issues. The technology we utilize allows us to audit any organization regardless of their geographic location.

He concluded by saying, "Our ultimate goal is to go into a practice and provide an independent audit of their coding and documentation to identify any compliance issues and then to provide the necessary training to bring the organization up to speed so that their future documentation is compliant with CMS rules and regulations."

To learn more about Atlantic Financial Consulting and their base line coding audits, you may visit their website at http://atlanticfinancial.us or contact Dallas L Alford IV, CPA at 1 888 428-2555 Ext. 200.

Contact Information:

Dallas Alford
Atlantic Financial Consulting
888 428-2555 x200

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