CCHS owes CMS less than the $1.5 million originally thought

DAYTON—The Columbia County Hospital (CCHS) Board of Commissioners heard a bit of good financial news at their December meeting.

The Finance Committee received an adjustment letter from their Medicare intermediary, Noridian, saying CCHS owes Medicare $833,000.00, an amount considerably less than the 1.5 million that was originally thought.

Matt Minor, the CCHS Financial Manager, said a $600,000.00 payment was made to Noridian, on Dec. 13,

On Dec. 19 Noridian began withholding the remainder owed out of Medicare payments to the health system.

Minor said there is no interest and no penalty for having Medicare withhold payments to CCHS, and he said it should only take a couple of weeks for the health system to begin receiving Medicare payments, again.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) operates on a cost- based reimbursement model. That is to say, they front load money for patient care, every year, based on data from the previous year. CMS can either collect the amount they overpay, or make additional payments to the health system, if they underpay.