Medicare Administrative Contractors to Resume Audits Beginning August 17

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently notified providers in a COVID-19 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document that, beginning August 17, 2020, Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs) will be resuming Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) medical review activities and audits. These audits had been placed on hold since March when the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) went into effect. The MACs will only be reviewing claims from before March 1, 2020 and will not be conducting Target, Probe, and Educate (TPE) audits (which consist of multiple rounds). Instead, single-phase audits will be conducted.