Washington

As if submitting claims for reimbursement wasn't tricky enough, Tommy Thompson, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, is proposing a user fee of $1.50 each for paper and duplicate claims.

In essence, as outlined in the department's fiscal year 2002 budget, any provider who submits paper claims or claims that are “duplicate or unprocessable,” would be assessed $1.50 for each claim.

“Paper claims are expensive to process compared to electronic claims,” HHS said in the budget, attempting to justify the proposed user fee. “Converting a large percentage of the remaining three percent of Part A claims and 18 percent of Part B claims that are submitted as paper will help lower processing costs. Duplicate or unprocessable claims are a drain on the system that must process 970 million claims over the course of a year.”

The department said the fee could be waived at the discretion of the secretary under special circumstances.