Three Republican U.S. senators have called on the Government Accountability Office to review operations of the CMS' HIPAA Eligibility Transaction System, which providers use to check the eligibility of Medicare beneficiaries.

The letter Tuesday from Orrin Hatch, Utah; Dr. Tom Coburn, Oklahoma; and Richard Burr, North Carolina (PDF), alleges that for months "there have been concerns about reoccurring problems with this program," including complaints from providers and beneficiaries about "unusually long wait times while trying to affirm eligibility." Providers also have not been able to get through via a secondary telephone connection at 1-800-Medicare, the senators assert.

"If HETS is failing to serve providers and seniors—whether due to increased transaction volume because of the new Medicare beneficiaries aging into the program or to mismanagement and neglect—Congress deserves to know the facts, as soon as possible, in order to help CMS make the necessary course corrections before the problem becomes more acute," the letter stated.

The senators specifically asked that the GAO review system volume and downtime and investigate why the CMS doesn't have service-level agreements with its eligibility verification providers.