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The AHA today urged the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services not to resume medical review activities, including Recovery Audit Contractor-initiated audits, which CMS suspended on March 30 due to the COVID-19 public health emergency.

AHA expressed deep concern with the agency’s decision to resume on Aug. 3 these burdensome audits in the middle of an ongoing pandemic.

“Requiring hospitals on the front line to divert their time, attention and resources away from patient care toward managing medical reviews – especially in the case of reviews conducted by RACs, which are paid on a contingency fee basis and thus incentivized to make inappropriate denials – will have a detrimental effect on their ability to manage the pandemic for their communities at the very time when it is needed most,” AHA wrote.

Read AHA’s full letter.