Medicare auditors recover $700 million in overpayments

Auditors have recovered nearly $700 million in Medicare overpayments to hospitals and other medical providers in a half-dozen states under a program that pays the auditing firms a portion of amounts they identify. Healthcare providers and hospitals have called it overly aggressive and too confrontational, but CMS has supported the move and is in the process of expanding it nationally. In all, the agency's recovery audit contractor program caught $1.03 billion of improper payments over about three years, about $992.7 million of which was overpayments by Medicare.