Hospice provider AseraCare is accused of submitting “false and fraudulent” Medicare claims for payment to the U.S. It has been alleged that the hospice has been claiming charges to the Federal Government for those patients who were not admitted to hospice. Hospice care is provided to Medicare recipients who have a prognosis of six months […]
Due to the “significant program integrity problems” presented to the Medicare program by durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics, and supplies (“DMEPOS”) suppliers, the Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) issued a report, Program Integrity Problems with Newly Enrolled Medicare Equipment Suppliers (“Report”). In its Report, the OIG aimed describes the aim of its investigation was two-fold: […]
In the December 19, 2011 Federal Register, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) issued its proposed rule for the Physician Payments Sunshine Act (“Proposed Rule”), which was promulgated as a result of Section 6002 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“PPACA”). Section 6002 requires applicable manufacturers of drugs, devices, biological, or […]
In the December 29, 2011 Federal Register, the Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) issued a notice of intent to develop regulations wherein it “solicits proposals and recommendations for developing new and modifying existing safe harbor provisions under the Federal anti-kickback statute….” Comments must be delivered no later than February 27, 2012 at 5pm and may […]
Until October 2009, physicians could lawfully act as service providers to hospitals by furnishing their services “under arrangements” where a physician or group of physicians would provide services, equipment and supplies to a hospital’s patients by contracting with the hospital to provide the services. Urologists, for instance, regularly furnished lithotripsy services under arrangements. The relationship […]
The Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) recently released a report entitled Questionable Billing Patterns of Portable X-Ray Suppliers (“Report”) wherein it identified portable x-ray suppliers with billing patterns associated with inappropriate Medicare payments. As a result of its Report, the OIG made recommendations to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) to account for […]
As we reported in previous blog entries regarding the 2012 Physician Fee Schedule, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) will be expanding its application of the Multiple Procedure Payment Reduction (“MPPR”) to the professional component (“PC”) of certain diagnostic imaging procedures. Currently, the MPPR only applies to the technical component (“TC”) of certain […]
In its fight against Medicare fraud, HHS announced that it “will direct all Medicare prescription drug plans to use every tool at their disposal to prevent fraud.” HHS noted the increasing problem of doctor shopping, the abuse of OxyContin and Percocet, and prescription drug fraud. Importantly, HHS announced that it has asked “prescription drug plans […]
The Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) has posted its Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (“HEAT”) compliance training resources on its website wherein it provides videos and audio podcasts regarding a number of topics, including: An overview of the OIG Overviews of the healthcare fraud and abuse laws; Exclusion from Medicare; Compliance programs; […]
In a December 13, 2011 press release, the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) announced that the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) has recovered over $5.6 billion in total fraud in 2011, an increase of over 167% since 2008. Of this $5.6 billion recovered in 2011, over $2.9 billion (over 51%) recovered was due to […]
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