Archive for February, 2012
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Funding Runs Out for Early Retiree Reinsurance Program
21 February 2012 / ERRP / 0 Comment
On February 17, 2012, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid published an updated reimbursement report that identified the payments that have been made to Plan Sponsors from the 5 billion dollars appropriated to this temporary program. As of that date, the funding that was made available to eligible plan sponsors has run out. This leaves thousands of ERRP Plan Sponsors wondering what they should do now.According to Health and Human Services, reimbursement requests which exceed the program's $5 billion will now be held in the order of receipt, pending the availability of funds that may become available through recoupment of overpayments. As previously reported, Plan Sponsors with reimbursement requests on hold can expect to receive an email notifying them that their reimbursement requests have been placed on hold pending the availability of funds. If you receive such an email, you may call the ERRP Contact Center to obtain updated information on the position of your reimbursement request in the list of held reimbursement requests.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid will continue to pay reimbursement requests in the order received until available funds are exhausted. If there are not sufficient funds to pay in its entirety the first reimbursement request that causes the initial exhaustion of the funds available for payment, CMS will partially honor that reimbursement request, and will pay the balance of that reimbursement request if additional funds become available through recoupment of overpayments.
It is extremely important to note that Plan Sponsors who have received funds through this Program must submit an error-free claims list before March 30th or you will be at risk of losing the funding you have received, allowing it to become available for another Plan Sponsor. As posted on the last ERRP.gov announcement, absent the submission of such an error-free claim list and a corresponding reimbursement request, CMS will initiate procedures for recoupment of the funds paid to the Plan Sponsor. Funds returned to the Program as a result of recoupment efforts will be used to pay outstanding reimbursement requests in the order in which they were received.
The pressure is on for Plan Sponsors to keep their ERRP subsidy. If you are in need of assistance regarding data aggregation for an error free claims list, please contact RDS Services immediately.
