Washington The Health Care Financing Administration could have fattened its coffers by $7.2 million in interest in 1998 if it had required providers to wait until the end of the service period to submit claims for durable medical equipment, prosthetics and orthotics supplies, according to the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General.

"HCFA is allowing unnecessary losses to the Medicare trust fund, in the form of unearned interest," said the recent OIG report. It recommended that HCFA not pay DMEPOS claims before the service period is completed and that HCFA require providers to submit claims at the end of the service period. It also suggested there be a common working file and/or contractor system edit to reject claims submitted before the end of the service period.

HCFA administrator Nancy-Ann DeParle disagreed with the recommendations.

She also said the OIG interest figure of $7.2 million was inflated because it did not take into consideration that it generally takes HCFA at least 14 days to pay a claim.