A Medical Device Daily

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) reported the final five contractors that will process and pay Medicare claims for healthcare services under the Medicare Fee-for-Service program.

The new contracts that will be administered for up to five years will process and pay 36% of the national volume of Medicare Part A (hospital insurance) and Part B (medical insurance) claims payments in 14 states, mostly in the South and Midwest. These are services furnished by hospitals, physicians and other healthcare providers to people with Medicare. CMS now has met its goal of awarding all 15 Medicare Administrative Contractor (MAC) contracts.

"With these last awards, CMS completes a major step in its effort to improve the way in which the government contracts for claims administration for the largest part of Medicare across the U.S.," Acting CMS Administrator Kerry Weems said. "CMS will receive the best value for the critical function of processing and paying Medicare claims."

The final five Part A and Part B MAC contractors will immediately begin their implementation activities and will assume full responsibility for the claims processing work in their respective jurisdictions no later than March 2010.

The new MACs are Noridian Administrative Services (Fargo, North Dakota), National Government Services (Indianapolis), Cahaba Government Benefit Administrators (Birmingham, Alabama), Palmetto Government Benefits Administrators (Columbia, South Carolina) and Highmark Medicare Services (Camp Hill, Pennsylvania).

Under the current system, fiscal intermediaries process claims for Medicare Part A providers, such as hospitals, skilled nursing facilities and other institutional providers. Carriers process claims for physicians, laboratories and other practitioners under Medicare Part B. The new system consolidates those contractors, making it simpler for practitioners to have a single point of contact with Medicare.

In other agreements/contracts news:

• Hitachi Medical Systems America (Twinsburg, Ohio) reported that it was awarded a contract by HealthTrust Purchasing Group (Brentwood, Tennessee) for MRI products. The contract includes Hitachi's Oasis 1.2T High-Field Open MRI and Echelon XL/XLS 1.5T short-bore MRI.

"We are pleased to have been selected by HealthTrust," said Sheldon Schaffer, vice president and general manager of MR/CT for Hitachi. "Hitachi's Oasis is a unique product that combines high-field image clinical capability, image quality and throughput with a superior patient experience which only a truly open MRI environment enables."

Hitachi's Echelon XL/XLS 1.5T short-bore MRI, available in either 8- or 16-channel RF configuration, is the only short-bore scanner, which allows all exams, including brain scans, to be performed with the patient entering the scanner feet first.

"Our customers report feet-first scanning has not only dramatically decreased patient anxiety but has an added benefit of increasing throughput," Schaffer said.

• Premier (San Diego) said it has awarded new agreements for medical and surgical products distribution as well as for specialty distribution-laboratory and/or research products (formerly laboratory distribution).

New agreements for medical and surgical products distribution were awarded to American Medical Depot (Opa-Locka, Florida), Buffalo Hospital Supply (Buffalo, New York), Cardinal Health (Dublin, Ohio), Clafin (Warwick, Rhode Island), DeKroyft-Metz (Peoria, Illinois), Kreisers (Sioux Falls, South Dakota), McKesson (San Francisco), Medical Specialties Distributors (Stoughton, Massachusetts), Medline Industries (Mundelein, Illinois), Midwest Medical Supply (Earth City, Missouri), Owens & Minor (Mechanicsville, Virginia), Professional Hospital Supply (Temecula, California) and Seneca Medical (Tiffin, Ohio).

New agreements for specialty distribution-laboratory and/or research products were awarded to Cardinal Health (Dublin, Ohio), Fisher HealthCare (Houston), Infolab (Greensboro, North Carolina) and Laboratory Supply (Louisville, Kentucky).

Effective Jan. 1, the agreements in both categories are available to acute-care as well as other classes of trade on a contract-by-contract basis of the Premier healthcare alliance.