RHC Cost Reporting
RHCs are required to file Medicare and Medicaid cost report annually in order to determine their payment rate and reconcile interim payments, including adjustments for GME payments, bad debt, and influenza and pneumococcal vaccines and their administration. Healthcare Business Specialists can prepare these cost reports for you, eliminating guesswork and inaccuracy while ensuring accurate reimbursement for your clinic.
Every year, Healthcare Business Specialists will send out a cost report checklist that helps our clients in pulling together the required information needed for the cost report preparation.
Healthcare Business Specialists will also work with your Medicare Administrative Contractor (MAC) to resolve any differences concerning your cost report at no additional cost to the clinic. Additionally, we are available to answer any questions that management may have concerning Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement during the year.
If your rural health clinic is not above the Medicare reimbursement maximum, you should consider having us prepare your cost report. Our recent review work has indicated that several clinics are not achieving maximum reimbursement rates because of incorrectly prepared cost reports. Last year 98% of our clients were at, or above, the reimbursement cap while the cost reports were filed conservatively.
Filing over 280 cost reports each year, we have been working with Medicare and Medicaid cost reports since 1981 – that experience has proven results.
RHC Cost Reporting
Healthcare Business Specialists, LLC prepares approximately 280 RHC cost reports annually for Independent RHCs. Mark R. Lynn, CPA, CRHCP, CCRS has over 35 years’ experience working with RHCs and Dani Gilbert, CPA, CRHCP is a Certified Rural Health Professional accredited by the NARHC. Our team also includes Page Chambers, CIA, CRHCP, and Trent Jackson, CCRS goal is to prepare your Medicare cost reports as accurately and timely as possible within the constraints of tight independent RHC budgets. The following is a link that will open our RHC Cost Reporting brochure if you are interested in more information related to cost reporting services for RHCs.
Medicare cost reports for independent RHCs have become much more important since the passage of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 which dramatically increased the Medicare upper payment limits for rural health clinics. These large increases in the upper payment limits allow RHCs that properly prepare the Medicare Cost Report to obtain much more Medicare reimbursement; however, it could result in large paybacks to Medicare if interim rates are higher than the actual cost per visit. Interim cost reports are an effective way to monitor the actual cost per visit and plan for ways to maximize your Medicare reimbursement within Medicare cost reporting rules.
If you would like Healthcare Business Specialists to help prepare your cost reports, please email Mark Lynn or Dani Gilbert at ruralhealthclinic@outlook.com and we will put together a proposal for this service.
Our Cost Report Checklist for 2022 cost reports and other cost report resources can be found as follows:
RHC Medicare Cost Report Checklist with Forms for 2022 (23-page PDF)
Healthcare Business Specialists Brochure for Cost Report Services
RHC REVIEWS
Healthcare Business Specialists also perform cost report reviews. If you are below the cap, it just makes sense to have your cost report reviewed. Even if we do not find increased reimbursement, you will receive a free benchmarking report comparing your clinic to other clinics in your area. The comparison will look at physician compensation, charges per Medicare visit, reimbursement per Medicare visit, physician visits, NP visits, PA visits, influenza and pneumococcal vaccine reimbursement, and other key operating variables of a rural health clinic.