Ineligible Medicare Payments to Skilled Nursing Facilities Under the Administrative Responsibility of Veritus Medicare Services

The objective of this audit was to determine the extent of ineligible Medicare Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) payments contained in the database of payments made under the administrative responsibility of Veritus Medicare Services (Veritus).  We estimated that $6.3 million of ineligible SNF payments were made under the administrative responsibility of Veritus during calendar years 1997 through 2001.  The overpayments occurred because of the absence of an automated cross-check, within the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services's Common Working File and the Fiscal Intermediary's claims processing systems, verifying that a three consecutive day inpatient hospital stay occurred prior to SNF admission.  Veritus generally agreed with our recommendation to initiate recovery actions, however, they disagreed with our recommendation for provider education.