Medicare and Medicaid payers can't access key online portal

The Strengthening Medicare and Repaying Taxpayers Act says the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is responsible to set up a website allowing claimants and payers to determine how much money is owed to Medicare “120 days before the reasonably expected date of a settlement, judgment, award or other payment.”

The bill's language says the portal would be established no later than nine months after the SMART Act's enactment, or by Oct. 20, 2013.

However, while beneficiaries now can access their information on the portal, mymedicare.gov, CMS' interim final rule says payers will not have access for two more years.

The CMS portal says the deadline for payer access is “no later than Jan. 1, 2016.”

Experts say the interim final rule's wording also misinterprets the 120-day notification window in various ways, potentially extending the notification period from 215 to 245 days.