The Office of Inspector General (OIG) recently announced that its 2022 work plan for hospices will include a nationwide review of hospice beneficiary eligibility. In this episode, Husch Blackwell’s Meg Pekarske and Bryan...more
Providing hospice care to vulnerable individuals can embroil hospices in a variety of unwanted situations. The emotions surrounding the death of a loved one can cause families and caregivers to question the kind of care...more
Hospices’ unique regulatory and business environment impacts how they contract with and relate to other private entities. In this episode, Husch Blackwell’s Meg Pekarske, Bryan Nowicki and Jake Harris discuss the many kinds...more
The False Claims Act is a powerful enforcement tool used to go after those who defraud the government. Unfortunately, the wide net cast by the False Claims Act can lead to extremely negative consequences for upstanding...more
In Part II of our two-part series on ALJ hearings, Husch Blackwell’s Meg Pekarske unpacks strategies for winning with colleagues Bryan Nowicki, Emily Solum and Erin Burns. They explore what it means to be well-prepared and...more
In this two-part series, Husch Blackwell’s Meg Pekarske unpacks strategies for winning at ALJ hearings with colleagues Bryan Nowicki, Emily Solum and Erin Burns. They explore what it means to be well-prepared and who should...more
In this episode, Husch Blackwell's Meg Pekarske chats with colleagues Bryan Nowicki and Jacob Harris, who share what happened with the Hospice Item Set (HIS) noncompliance letters. You have to listen—did hospices win or lose?...more
In today’s episode, Husch Blackwell’s Meg Pekarske talks with team members Bryan Nowicki and Erin Burns about two recent developments in the hospice audit arena. First, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)...more
In this third episode of the Husch Blackwell Hospice Team’s “Hospice and the False Claims Act” series, Meg Pekarske, Bryan Nowicki, Jody Rudman and Brian Flood discuss the process and path of a False Claims Act (FCA) lawsuit....more
In this second episode of the Husch Blackwell Hospice Team’s three-part “Hospice and the False Claims Act” series, Meg Pekarske, Bryan Nowicki, Jody Rudman and Brian Flood discuss the precursor to almost every False Claims...more
After waiting years, hospices are getting their “day in court.” How are hospices faring? In this episode, Husch Blackwell’s Meg Pekarske is joined by colleagues Bryan Nowicki and Emily Park, who share insights on what it...more
In this episode, Husch Blackwell’s Meg Pekarske and Bryan Nowicki discuss the new wave of CMS Center for Program Integrity (CPI) audits that have been issued during the past couple weeks. These CPI audits remain focused on...more
In today's episode of Hospice Insights: The Law & Beyond, Husch Blackwell’s Meg Pekarske is joined by colleagues Bryan Nowicki and Erin Burns to discuss the recent denial of physician visits. Over the last several months, a...more
Today's Episode: Spring Audit Bloom—Medicaid UPICs and MAC ADRs
Today, Husch Blackwell's Meg Pekarske is joined by colleagues Bryan Nowicki and Erin Burns to discuss the recent flurry of audit activity, specifically the...more
In this first episode of the Husch Blackwell Hospice Team’s 3-part “Hospice and the False Claims Act” series, Husch Blackwell’s Meg Pekarske, Bryan Nowicki, Jody Rudman and Brian Flood discuss how the False Claims Act (FCA)...more
Hospice Audits Series
Audits are a fact of life for hospices—it’s not a matter of “if” a hospice will be audited, but “when.” The alphabet soup of audits has expanded, from UPICs to SMRCs, CPIs, TPEs and more. With the...more
The latest COVID Relief and Funding law passed in December 2020 brings dramatic changes to the hospice survey process. While CMS will need to engage in future rulemaking to implement the new framework, Congress created a...more
The AseraCare court decision benefited hospices and physicians, particularly by recognizing the uncertainty surrounding prognostication of a six-month life expectancy and the principle that two physicians can disagree about...more
The Trump Administration has shown an interest in regulatory reform with the goal of reducing the burden on regulated parties such as hospices. This has recently come to the forefront as part of the administration’s efforts...more
COVID-19 has affected all aspects of hospice care, operations and personnel, including the person whose judgment is at the center of the Medicare hospice benefit: the hospice physician. From new regulations addressing...more
COVID-19 threw a wrench into certain hospice audit activity, but the machine rumbles on. In today’s podcast episode, Husch Blackwell's Meg Pekarske, Erin Burns and Bryan Nowicki discuss the current state of hospice audits,...more
Medical reviews to restart-
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) medical review activity suspended due to COVID-19 is set to restart on August 3, 2020, regardless of the public health emergency status....more
The 2019 Aseracare Court of Appeals decision was lauded by hospices as appropriate push-back to overly aggressive whistleblowers and government enforcers. Its central holding, that two physicians can reasonably disagree about...more
The 2019 Aseracare Court of Appeals decision was lauded by hospices as appropriate push-back to overly aggressive whistleblowers and government enforcers. Its central holding, that two physicians can reasonably disagree about...more
Many hospices understand the general framework established for use of relief payments from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. However, questions remain about how to evaluate whether specific expenses and losses...more