The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services this afternoon announced it is postponing all activity involving the four permanent Medicare recovery audit contractors due to a “RAC protest and stay of performance.” Furthermore, all outreach sessions in the first round of RAC states originally scheduled to begin this month have been delayed until further notice. CMS said that, in the meantime, it continues to prepare for the permanent nationwide RAC program and indicated that it will post further detail about the reasons behind the postponement on its Web site. For more on the RAC program and how the AHA is helping hospitals prepare for the audits, visit www.aha.org/rac.