OIG Audit Finds Federal Database of Terminated Medicaid Providers Needs Improvement
By Lenis L. Archer, J.D., M.P.H., The Health Law Firm
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to establish a process for sharing information about terminated Medicaid providers. The federal database, called Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program State Information Sharing System (MCSIS), is designed to prevent terminated health care providers from billing another state’s program. However, an audit by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG), released in March 2014, states the MCSIS is not working as intended.
The MCSIS is supposed to collect data from every state Medicaid program on providers that were terminated […]