The landscape of the Medicare appeals process is quickly changing with the launch of the Settlement Conference Facilitation (“SCF”) pilot program. The program is designed to be an alternate dispute resolution process where the appellant and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) come together to discuss a potential…
On July 8, 2014, the Office of Medicare Hearings and Appeals (“OMHA”) posted to its website a new sampling pilot initiative to address large volumes of claims pending at the ALJ stage of appeal. The sampling request can be initiated by an appellant, or OMHA may offer an appellant the…
The landscape of the Medicare appeals process is quickly changing with the launch of the Settlement Conference Facilitation (“SCF”) pilot program. The program is designed to be an alternate dispute resolution process where the appellant and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) come together to discuss a potential…
On May 9 and May 12, 2014, the United States Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) published two proposed rules that would significantly expand the authority of the Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) to exclude providers from participation in federal health care payor programs and impose civil monetary penalties.…
On May 19, 2014, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) announced that it is considering new ways to define and pay for hospital short-stays. In October 2013, CMS implemented the “Two-Midnight Rule” with the goal of bringing clarity to billing for Part A inpatient hospital admissions. However, the Rule…
The Program for Evaluating Payment Patterns Electronic Report (“PEPPER”) is an electronic data report under contract with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) that helps guide hospital’s auditing and monitoring services. In 2014, PEPPER published new target areas for Short-Term Acute Care hospitals that were identified as prone…
On Tuesday, May 13, 2014, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) and Department of Health and Human Services (“DHHS”) held a joint news conference to announce that the Medicare Fraud Strike Force had conducted a nationwide takedown of 90 individuals involving approximately $260 million in fraudulent Medicare billings. The nationwide takedown…
In December of 2013, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a Request for Quotes for new Recovery Auditor (RAC) contracts. The new contracts include significant changes to payment terms. Whereas the current contracts allow payment to RACs after the first level of appeal has been exhausted (120…
On May 7, 2014, the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”), New York-Presbyterian Hospital (“NYP”) and Columbia University (“CU”) agreed to collectively pay $4.8 million to settle charges of alleged violations of the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rule marking the largest HIPAA settlement to date. OCR initiated an investigation…
The final budget bill was recently passed in New York State containing several provisions for Out-of-Network (“OON”) reforms. The major changes related to OON reform include: 1) transparency provisions requiring the reestablishment of “usual, customary and reasonable” or “UCR” charges to determine reimbursement rates; 2) adding protections allowing patients to…