Eon to offer free CMS lung screening compliance audits

Patient management technology firm Eon is offering free U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) compliance audits to qualifying lung cancer screening programs.

In 2015, CMS approved reimbursement for lung cancer screening for eligible, at-risk populations, but reimbursement is contingent on radiology imaging centers submitting certain required data fields for all screening tests performed to an approved registry, the company said. The only currently approved CMS registry is the American College of Radiology (ACR) Lung Cancer Screening Registry (LCSR).

The ACR has made the data submission process more complicated by adding fields, changing data requirements, and not informing facilities when certain records do not meet eligibility requirements to be sent to CMS, according to Eon.

"Noncompliance puts radiology imaging centers and their associated organizations at risk, both legally and financially," the company said in a statement. "If an audit performed by CMS determines that data submitted to the registry does not comply with the reimbursement received, according to CMS, the facility may be liable for the total dollar amount collected for lung screening reimbursements."

Eon plans to launch a national compliance tour that will offer centers the opportunity to undergo data audits, identify gaps, and submit missing information, it said.