Physician's Coding Strategist

Feds offer answers to your questions

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) has posted on its Web site 23 new answers to frequently asked questions (FAQ) on corporate integrity agreement (CIA) billing reviews.

Most CIAs or settlement agreements with integrity provisions (agreements) require that a billing review be conducted, either by an independent review organization (IRO) or in some cases by the provider, with a verification review performed by the IRO. Over the past several years, the language used in these CIAs and agreements to describe the billing reviews has evolved from being general in nature to fairly specific.

For this reason, the OIG has updated its original list and has added a specific index of topics covered by these FAQs, as follows:

• reporting of overpayments;

• independence of an IRO;

• selecting an IRO;

• material violations;

• CIA billing reviews.

The access the FAQs, go to www.dhhs.gov/progorg/oig/cia/ciafaq1.htm.