Improper payments cost Medicaid $86.49 billion in 2020 alone. A common misconception is that improper payments stem from fraud and abuse when in fact the majority stem from prosaic, mundane issues such as eligibility errors and antiquated data systems. Fraud in the Medicaid program may well still be a dramatic issue, but when improper payments are the outcome of eligibility errors as opposed to fraud, the true scope of the challenge can better be addressed.
By law, Medicaid plans are payers of last resort. This means if a beneficiary has health care coverage through any other third party, that third party must pay its legal liability first. If any liability remains, Medicaid plans will then pay. As the program expands, identifying liable third party payers for claims has become increasingly difficult. Plans simply do not have access to the quality eligibility data needed to identify third party liability (TPL) before claims are paid. Much of the data historically used to prevent improper payments has not been current, available, complete, or accurate. As a result, Medicaid plans continue to make claims’ payments in error.
Once new eligibility information is made available and plans discover overpayments, they then attempt to recoup the funds with a process known as “pay and chase.” This process has led to the development of a multibillion-dollar post-payment recovery industry. Unfortunately, for payers trying to recoup improper claims payments, the actual funds recovered remain around 20 cents on the dollar.
Medicaid programs have struggled to accurately identify TPL for decades. One reason is that for the past 40 years, the technology needed to accurately identify TPL has not existed. Over time, improper payments continued to increase, even landing Medicaid on the Government Accountability Office’s high-risk list in 2003. Since then, a series of federal initiatives have occurred to rein in costs. Legislators have passed new laws, formulated regulations, and held hearings over the issues, and government oversight offices (GAO and OIG) have provided written reports to Congress. Despite legislative efforts and existing TPL processes, the improper payment rate has only accelerated. While all the initiatives have helped to identify the scope of the problem, at present, they do nothing to curb improper payments.
If Medicaid payers can identify whether a member has primary coverage before claims are paid, the need for post-payment recovery is mitigated. Furthermore, the subset of Medicaid members who have unreported primary commercial coverage presents a tremendous opportunity for payers of last resort to get in front of the problem.
How can payers of last resort get access to timely, accurate eligibility data?
Right now, some of the best, most accurate, and current data on patients’ health insurance coverage resides in ePrescribing infrastructures. Leveraging this resource allows for more timely identification of TPL by capturing the necessary information on primary coverage that Medicaid members may have. EPrescribing, as a platform, electronically connects patients, providers, pharmacies, and pharmacy benefits managers, and ensures patient eligibility data are accurate and up to date.
Syrtis Solutions recognized the potential of ePrescribing data to help Medicaid plans identify primary payers. The solution, ProTPL, utilizes ePrescribing eligibility data to provide Medicaid plans with a technology-based solution to prospectively avoid pharmacy and medical claims that are the liability of commercial payers. ProTPL is the only solution in the marketplace that utilizes proprietary logic necessary to decipher the complex coding of pharmacy transactions and translate it into actionable eligibility data. Furthermore, Syrtis uses its superior matching algorithm to find primary coverage on members that no other vendor in the marketplace can find.
Syrtis addresses the problem of improper payments on the front end, gathering better data and applying it to avoid claims costs and the expenses associated with recovery efforts. ProTPL has the added benefit of making the claims process smoother for all involved, including providers. Those involved in the process of Medicaid claims payments have been operating with the best available tools. Now, they have new and better tools through Syrtis Solutions.