Hospice Insights Podcast: What’s the Latest on UPICs? Highlights from Recent Audit Activity, Part I
AGG Talks: Home Health & Hospice Podcast - Episode 5: Understanding Palliative Care: Strategies for Compliance and Reimbursement
Hospice and Home Health Survey Perspectives: A Conversation with Kim Skehan, VP of Accreditation at CHAP
Episode 172: Matthew Roberts and Lauren DeMoss, Maynard Nexsen Health Care Attorneys
A Very “Special” Episode: Amid Controversy, CMS Launches the Hospice Special Focus Program
Grace from CMS: Unexpected Good News on HIS and CAHPS Appeals
This Bandwagon Has a Broken Wheel: OIG Joins the Inconsistent Approach to Hospice GIP Claims
Beyond Hospice: Home Health Agencies Plagued by UPICs and SMRCs
Beyond Hospice: The OIG Renews Its Scrutiny of Home Health Agencies
New York State’s Medicaid Homecare program pays for in-home personal care services. New York’s program has long been the best in the country. One underlying policy behind the program was that people should have every...more
Sen. Ward Floats Temporary Budget Amid Ongoing Stalemate - Senate President Kim Ward (R-Westmoreland) has proposed a six-month budget to keep Pennsylvania operating as the legislative stalemate over school choice and mass...more
UPIC activity is picking up, and the UPICs are reviving some old tactics. In this episode, Husch Blackwell’s Meg Pekarske and Bryan Nowicki discuss these trends which include extrapolation, Medicaid nursing home room and...more
In spring 2024, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized the Medicaid access rule, which includes a provision that requires that 80% of Medicaid payments for most Medicaid-funded home health aide,...more
In May 2023, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) proposed a series of rule changes intended to help promote the availability of home and community-based services (“HCBS”) for Medicaid beneficiaries. Chief...more
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced on April 27, 2023, that it will publicly release all ownership information of home health and hospice agencies. This move is aimed at increasing transparency and...more
On February 14, 2022, OIG issued Advisory Opinion No. 22-03 analyzing a proposed arrangement under which home health agency (HHA) owners would pay tuition costs of nurse aid certification programs for new employees who are...more
On February 14, 2022, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued Advisory Opinion No. 22-03 (Advisory Opinion) regarding a home health agency’s (Requestor) proposal to pay nurse aide certification tuition costs on behalf of...more
Companies who feel the Public Health Emergency (PHE) waivers and exceptions have rendered telemedicine “immune” from compliance oversight might be surprised to learn what federal regulators have in the works. The Office of...more
On December 23, 2020, the OIG published Advisory Opinion 20-06, concluding that it would not impose penalties or sanctions under either the beneficiary inducement prohibitions of the civil monetary penalty statute (CMP) or...more
As the House and Senate returned from August recess, the 116th Congress remained in a political impasse with respect to what they can accomplish before they adjourn in December. Included on their list of priorities is a...more
The Visiting Nurse Service of New York (VNSNY) has agreed to pay $57 million to settle a whistleblower lawsuit that alleged it billed the Medicare and Medicaid programs for hundreds of millions of dollars in home care visits...more
With the emergency declaration under the National Emergencies Act related to the coronavirus (COVID-19) on March 13, 2020, President Trump paved the way for CMS to temporarily waive certain Medicare, Medicaid, and Children's...more
Compliance Today (November 2019) - In September 2019, the US Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General released the result of an audit report, “The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Could...more
On September 5, 2019, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) released a final rule with comment period entitled, “Program Integrity Enhancements to the Provider Enrollment Process” (the “Final Rule”). The...more
On July 11, 2019, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) announced a proposed rule for home health agency Medicare reimbursement that would increase payments by an aggregate 1.3% for 2020, amounting to $250...more
House passes budget bill - The House approved a $6.1 billion FY 2020 budget this week. The bill, H.542, provides for a 3.1 percent growth in spending over FY 2019....more
As of January 30, 2019, CMS lifted its temporary provider enrollment moratoria (“Enrollment Moratorium”) for home health agencies (“HHAs”) in Florida, Illinois, Michigan and Texas. The Enrollment Moratorium had prevented new...more
Starting in 2019, providers of home health care services will be required to clock in electronically with Medicaid prior to performing services. However, disability rights advocates and a bipartisan group of senators are...more
In the home health proposed payment rule released July 2 (Proposed Rule), the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) continues its efforts to alert on six proposed Medicare payment updates to put “patient-centered...more
On July 2, 2018, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published its annual proposed rule outlining both payment and policy changes for home health agencies. In a press release announcing the proposed rule, CMS...more
Florida Governor Rick Scott recently signed into law CS/CS/SB 622 (“Bill”), which effectuates a variety of changes to regulations impacting the operation of home health agencies (“HHAs”). Providers, HHA facility owners, and...more
Audits of compliance with the Wage Parity Act ("WPA") are on the rise. The NYS Attorney General's Medicaid Fraud Unit, Medicaid Inspector General ("OMIG"), and Department of Labor ("DOL") are all auditing home care agencies....more
On January 29, 2017, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a temporary moratorium on enrolling Part B non-emergency ambulance providers/suppliers and home health agencies, subunits and branch...more
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) have issued new Conditions of Participation (CoP) for home health agencies (HHA) that are effective January 13, 2018. The CoP were originally scheduled to take effect on...more