1.  Social Security Administration's Inspector General (IG) reports on illegal aliens' misuse of Social Security numbers (SSN).  On September 29, the IG reported on whether (1) wage items associated with Social Security number misuse for work purposes were being posted to the Master Earnings File and (2) the Social Security Administration (SSA) had established effective controls to detect such postings and prevent future occurrences.

The report, which is available online at http://www.ssa.gov/oig/ADOBEPDF/A-03-07-27152.pdf stated:

"SSA had several processes to detect some instances of SSN misuse in its  records. However, SSA needs to strengthen its controls to help prevent misuse of an SSN from continuing once identified. We found the Agency's employer correspondence processes and employer liaison services did not inform employers about potential SSN misuse cases.Instead, the Agency generally relied on the public to inform it about repeated SSN misuse, and evidence showed this did not always occur.

"Finally, the Agency's employer verification programs had limited ability to inform employers about instances where one person was using another's name and SSN to obtain employment. If SSA does not take additional steps to help prevent SSN misuse from continuing, the misuse could lead to SSA making improper Social Security payments to individuals."

2.  Medicare publishes program to reduce payment errors.  The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that, beginning October 1, it will publish most of the edits utilized in its Medically Unlikely Edit (MUE) program to improve the accuracy of claims payments.

"It is always our aim to ensure that CMS pays for appropriate services, at the same time protecting the Medicare Trust funds and the American taxpayer," said CMS Acting Administrator Kerry Weems.  "This program is going to help us dramatically reduce costly payment errors."

Claims processing contractors utilize these edits to assure that providers and suppliers do not report excessive services.  The edits are applied during the electronic processing of all claims.

These edits check the number of times a service is reported by a provider or supplier for the same patient on the same date of service.

Prior studies identified significant Medicare overpayments because provider or supplier claims sometimes report services with too many units of service.  These errors may be caused by numerous factors, including clerical errors and coding errors.

The edits were developed by CMS with the cooperation and participation of national health care organizations representing physicians, hospitals, non-physician practitioners, laboratories, and durable medical equipment suppliers.  CMS also utilized claims data.

The edits will be published on the CMS Web site at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/NationalCorrectCodInitEd/08_MUE.asp#TopOfPage.