The Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, has issued a new Risk Alert focusing on the home health agency (HHA) survey process. The alert specifically examined whether HHA-supplied patient lists during surveys may omit certain patients from review and thereby present opportunities to conceal fraudulent activity or health and safety violations.
VA and HHS Team Together to Combat Health Care Fraud, Waste, and Abuse
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) have announced a partnership to leverage CMS’s program integrity tools to detect and prevent fraud within VA programs. The collaboration will focus on applying state-of-the-art data analytics tools and best practices identified by CMS to VA claims payment processes. In
ONC Proposes Trusted Exchange Framework for Health Information Networks
The Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health Information Technology has released a draft trusted exchange framework that proposes policies, procedures, and technical standards to further Congressionally-mandated efforts to establish a nationwide, interoperable health system under the 21st Century Cures Act of 2016. Currently, there are dozens of Health Information Networks (HINs) that operate
Congress Holds More Hearings on Opioid Crisis and Public Health Threats
A number of recent Congressional hearings focused on the opioid crisis, including the following:
- A House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee hearing on the current landscape of the crisis and CMS efforts to prevent opioid misuse.
- A Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing examining the ways Medicaid may have unexpectedly contributed to development
Is anybody home? Medicare contractors on the prowl for DMEPOS supplier violations of posted business hours and other physical facility standards.
Medicare suppliers of durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics, and supplies (DMEPOS) should be on the alert for enhanced Medicare supplier standard compliance monitoring by CMS, the National Supplier Clearinghouse (NSC), and their agents. Recently, these entities have taken draconian actions to revoke the enrollment of a number of suppliers who failed to be present during indicated hours of operation. Recent Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) decisions have upheld such revocations for technical violation of the Medicare supplier standard, even in the face of extenuating circumstances, reinforcing the need for suppliers to review their practices and policies to ensure full compliance.
Continue Reading Is anybody home? Medicare contractors on the prowl for DMEPOS supplier violations of posted business hours and other physical facility standards.
ICD-9-CM Coordination and Maintenance Committee Meeting (March 5, 2013)
On March 5, 2013, the ICD-9-CM Coordination and Maintenance Committee is holding a public forum to discuss proposed code changes to the ICD-9-CM and ICD-10-CM/PCS code sets. As previously reported, CMS has scheduled implementation of the ICD-10-CM/ICD-10-PCS code sets for October 1, 2014. Accordingly, only limited code updates to capture new technologies and diseases will