To Avoid CMS Penalty Exposure Time Is of the Essence

The timely reporting of ORM (Ongoing Responsibility for Medicals) and TPOC (Total Payment Obligation to Claimant) data to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is of key importance to insurers, especially now that enforcement of noncompliance penalties is on the horizon. CMS will certainly be monitoring this; so, to avoid potential penalties, RREs (Responsible Reporting Entities) should make every effort to ensure that their data is reported to CMS in a timely fashion. 

Late reporting triggers compliance flags

The current CMS process contains a mechanism that evaluates the timing of both TPOC submissions and ORM terminations. If either is determined to have been reported late, a compliance flag will be returned to the RRE’s Claim Response File. A compliance flag value of “01” indicates a late TPOC submission, while a compliance flag of “03” indicates the late submission of an ORM termination date[i]. To be considered timely, CMS must receive a TPOC report within 135 days of the TPOC date. Similarly, for timely reporting of an ORM termination date, CMS must receive that date within 135 days of ORM termination. CMS will calculate the 135-day window by comparing the actual receipt date of the Claim Input File with the TPOC or ORM termination dates. 

Flag on the play? A penalty won’t always follow

While timely reporting is crucial, it’s worth noting that the receipt of a compliance flag is not a surefire indication that a penalty is forthcoming. CMS’s compliance flags are best considered a warning that an RRE may be considered noncompliant. While receipt of a compliance flag should certainly be taken seriously, it’s also important to understand that the logic that generates these flags is unsophisticated at present. 

There are situations in which a compliance flag may be generated despite the fact that the RRE actually reported the data in a timely manner. This may occur in situations when an RRE either re-reports a claim or submits an update transaction for a previously reported claim, with TPOC or ORM termination, on time. Unfortunately, the CMS system currently does not check for prior timely receipt of a TPOC or ORM termination in such a scenario; the system will simply look at the TPOC or ORM termination date within the record being submitted and compare that date with the file receipt date.  If the TPOC or ORM termination date is greater than 135 days prior to file receipt, the compliance flag will automatically triggeri. 

Audit trails will serve RREs when flags go amiss

CMS is aware that compliance flags may be generated in error; fortunately, they do have an audit trail of the RRE’s past submissions. Upon manual review, CMS can determine if a report was initially received on time. That being the case, if an RRE is certain that the claim was previously reported on time but they received a compliance flag in one of the aforementioned scenarios, the RRE can safely disregard the subsequently generated flag. 

As outlined in the user guide excerpt below, one thing for which CMS does not currently generate a compliance flag is the late submission of an initial ORM report. 

The establishment or assumption of ongoing responsibility for medicals can take place at various times during a claim review. The actual date of when the RRE assumed ORM is not collected as part of the claim report. RREs will not receive a compliance flag regarding possible late submission of a ‘Y’ value for the ORM Indicator (Field 78 on the Claim Input File Detail Record). However, CMS does reserve the right to audit an RRE and/or their agent(s) with respect to this issue (or any other Section 111 reporting issue). The RRE must have a record of when ongoing responsibility for medicals on a reported claim was assumed and was then terminated, and when such ongoing responsibility for medicals was reported to the BCRC under Section 111, in order to establish timely reporting.

(Section 111 User Guide, Chapter IV: Technical Information, ch. 7.4.)

Whether TPOC or ORM, on-time reporting is your best bet

With that in mind, a good rule of thumb is to apply the same basic guidelines for timely reporting of ORM as those used for TPOC and ORM termination reporting. While a late report will not generate a compliance flag, in the event of a CMS audit, documentation reflecting the assumption of ORM within 135 days prior to the initial Section 111 report will likely ensure that an RRE’s report of ORM is considered timely.

By Shawn Deane, Jeremy Farquhar

Courtesy of ISO Claims Partners Blog

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