It was just released that Congress is contemplating whether Medicare will be able to restrict at-risk drug abuse beneficiaries to a limited number of pharmacies and providers when they seek narcotics. Currently, Medicaid and the Veterans Affairs (VA) are able to impose these restrictions, but Medicare is not. If successful, this action will help prevent […]
The United States Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (“HHS-OIG”) has released its Work Plan for Fiscal Year 2016. This plan summarizes new and continuing areas of review and activities that HHS-OIG plans to pursue as well as describing its primary objectives. The newest additions to the work plan are: • […]
In July, we blogged about the major Stark Law provisions in the 2016 Proposed Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (the “Proposed Rule“). On October 29, 2015, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS“) released the final 2016 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (the “Final Rule“) (available here), with few changes between the proposed rule and final […]
A top priority of the Department of Justice (DOJ) is battling corporate fraud and now the focus is on holding the individuals who carry out the wrongdoing accountable. The DOJ released a memorandum this month setting forth six key steps that should be taken by federal law enforcement agents in any investigation of corporate misconduct: […]
On October 21, 2015, President Obama announced new initiatives to fight the nation’s opioid abuse epidemic. The President discussed several plans for doing so, such as: expanding access to drug treatment, increasing the number of physicians who can prescribe a drug used to treat opiate addiction, doubling the number of providers that can prescribe a […]
In the last few weeks, we have seen a flurry of activity in Zone Program Integrity Contractor (“ZPIC”) audits for the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”). Recently, many providers – and home health agencies, in particular – have received ZPIC audit notifications from NCI, Inc. (“NCI”) In April 2015, CMS awarded NCI the […]
On July 15, 2015, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida announced that it settled False Claims Act allegations against Blanding Health Mart Pharmacy for more than $8 million. Blanding Health Mart Pharmacy is a compounding pharmacy based in Jacksonville, Florida. The settlement stems from allegations that the pharmacy “knowingly billed the […]
On July 29, 2015 the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) announced that it is extending the temporary moratoria on the enrollment of new home health agencies, subunits, and branch locations (“HHA”) and part B ambulance suppliers for an additional six months. Section 6401(a) of the Affordable Care Act added section 1866(j)(7) to the […]
The government does not like Physician-Owned Hospitals (“POH”). The government also does not like Physician-Owned Distributors (“POD”). The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) and the Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) have taken several steps recently to crack down on what it views as abusive PODs and POHs. In a brand new memorandum report, […]
In June, the Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) issued two new reports on Medicare Part D titled: Ensuring the Integrity of Medicare Part D (available here) and Questionable Billing and Geographic Hotspots Point to Potential Fraud and Abuse in Medicare Part D (available here). In the Ensuring the Integrity of Medicare Part D report, the […]
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