Review of Medicare Accounts Receivable Reported by the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services' Region VI Regional Office

The objectives of this review were to determine whether the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Region VI Regional Office (1) accurately reported and properly supported its accounts receivable balances including a “settlement cleanup” project involving certain Medicare Secondary Payer (MSP) accounts receivable for the quarter ended September 30, 2000, and (2) complied with the Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996 and CMS policies related to collection efforts.  The lack of adequate, or in some instances, any reconciliation and internal control procedures prevented the Regional Office from (1) accurately reporting its accounts receivable and the MSP “settlement cleanup” amount and (2) timely referring delinquent accounts receivable to the Treasury.  Before the completion of our fieldwork, the Regional Office developed and implemented policies and procedures that addressed the concerns identified during our fieldwork. In addition, subsequent to the completion of our fieldwork, CMS issued instructions for the Regional Office to transfer the administration of Medicare accounts receivable debt to the originating contractors.  As a result, our only recommendation was for the Regional Office to continue to process and report Medicare accounts receivable in accordance with its current policies and procedures through its final reporting period of September 30, 2003.  The Regional Office fully concurred with our findings and recommendation.