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
Earlier this year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) confirmed that, effective January 1, 2025, CMS will pay for acute kidney injury (AKI) renal dialysis treatments at-home at the daily rate based on...more
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) have released significant updates affecting Medicare payments for 2025. The changes, outlined in two final rules, will impact both physicians and hospitals, eliciting strong...more
The US Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized important changes to the Medicare enrollment regulations applicable to hospices and home health agencies (HHAs), including increasing the level of screening that...more
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) has finalized 2024 home health rules to include application of the home health “36-month rule” to hospice providers. The revised rule will forbid any change in majority...more
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) issued a Proposed Rule on July 10, 2023, that, if finalized, will revise the Medicare Provider Enrollment requirements to expand the current Home Health Agency (“HHA”)...more
On July 10, 2023, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published a proposed rule (Proposed Rule) that would (i) include hospices in the 36-month rule ownership transfer restrictions that currently exist for home...more
Last week, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued a Proposed Rule that, if finalized, would extend the application of the “36-Month Rule” from home health agencies (“HHAs”) to also include hospice agencies as...more
On July 10, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) issued a Proposed Rule that would extend the “36-Month Rule” to Hospice providers. The 36-Month Rule refers to 42 C.F.R. § 424.550(b), which currently...more
On April 20, 2023, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) made ownership data of all Medicare-certified hospices and home health agencies publicly available for the first time. This move is consistent with the...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 April 20, 2023, HHS announced that it is releasing ownership data for all Medicare-certified hospice and home health agencies not previously available to the public in this way. There are more than 6,000 hospices and...more
On Thursday, April 20, 2023, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released ownership data for all Medicare-certified hospice and home health agencies on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)...more
Publicizing home health agency and hospice agency ownership information furthers President Biden’s goal to promote competition and make data more transparent for consumers, as noted in his July 2021 Executive Order. A link...more
On November 4, 2022, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published the calendar year 2023 Home Health Prospective Payment System Rate final rule, which updates Medicare payment policies and rates for home...more
On November 2, 2022, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) filed its final rule implementing changes to the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule for CY 2023 (Final Rule). Embedded within this Final Rule are important...more
On November 2, 2021, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) issued a final rule (“Final Rule”) that advances the shift from paying for Medicare home health services based on volume to a system that pays based on...more
On November 25, 2020, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) gave hospitals facing another surge in COVID-19 patients more flexibility to care for Medicare patients outside of the walls of their hospitals. In...more
The Calendar Year (CY) 2021 final rule updating the Home Health Prospective Payment System (HH PPS) includes increases in the national, standardized 30-day period payment and per-visit payment for home health agencies (HHAs)...more
Report on Medicare Compliance 29, no. 39 (November 2, 2020) - Medtronic USA Inc., a medical device maker, has agreed to pay $8.1 million to settle allegations it violated the False Claims Act by paying kickbacks to induce...more
Home health agencies (HHAs) in Ohio had a brief reprieve from the audits of their Medicare claims under the Review Choice Demonstration (RCD), but that reprieve is about to end. ...more
On June 22, 2020, CMS issued a press release calling for a renewed national commitment to value-based payment models for healthcare providers rather than fee-for-service models. The proclamation came as CMS also released...more
Last week CMS issued a new round of regulatory waivers and rule changes in response to the COVID-19 public health emergency, including its Interim Final Rule with comment period, CMS-5531-IFC. The key changes relax certain...more
On April 30, 2020, CMS issued several new and revised blanket waivers for health care providers retroactively effective March 1, 2020, through the end of the emergency declaration. CMS’s authority to grant blanket waivers...more
On March 10, 2020, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) supplemented the guidance that we previously discussed in our March 6, 2020 blog post in order to provide additional guidance to healthcare providers,...more
On October 31, 2019, CMS issued a final rule with comment period (Final Rule), CMS-1711-FC, updating the payment rates for home health agencies (HHAs) for calendar year (CY) 2020...more