Hospice Insights Podcast: What’s the Latest on UPICs? Highlights from Recent Audit Activity, Part I
Hospice Insights Podcast - Stories of Successful Hospice Leadership: The CEO and Chief Medical Officer Relationship
Hospice Insights Podcast - A Rise in Medicare Deactivations: Tips for Avoiding This Financial Pain
AGG Talks: Home Health & Hospice Podcast - Episode 5: Understanding Palliative Care: Strategies for Compliance and Reimbursement
Hospice Insights: Check the Mail: Are You Getting a 4% Rate Cut?
Hospice Labor and Employment Trends - Get Up to Speed Fast: What You Need to Know About the New Rules Involving Non-Competes and Exempt Employees
AGG Talks: Home Health & Hospice - Lessons Learned From ALJ Hospice Audit Appeals
Hospice Insights Podcast - A Refresh: What’s New in the New OIG General Compliance Program Guidance
Hospice Insights Podcast - Deal Breakers: Identifying Key Issues Early in Member Substitutions
A Command Performant(s): RAC Audits on the Rise
The TPE Carousel. . . Around and Around We Go
A Fond Farewell: Musings on the End of the Medicare Advantage Hospice Carve-In Demonstration
OMG. . .The OIG is at it Again
How One Hospice Owner Got Convicted of Healthcare Fraud and How You Can Avoid That Fate
Hospice and Home Health Survey Perspectives: A Conversation with Kim Skehan, VP of Accreditation at CHAP
Year in Review: Key Regulatory Updates in 2023
An Alternative to Consolidations: Key Considerations for Management Services Organizations
Stories of Successful Hospice Leadership: The CEO and Compliance Officer Relationship
A Very “Special” Episode: Amid Controversy, CMS Launches the Hospice Special Focus Program
Grace from CMS: Unexpected Good News on HIS and CAHPS Appeals
On June 28, 2024, SCOTUS overturned the long-standing Chevron doctrine in its decision Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo and Relentless v. Department of Commerce. The Court’s ruling will have a significant impact on...more
News Briefs - Survey Finds Decline in Telehealth Use Across Most Groups in 2022 - The percentage of adults who used telehealth in the past year dropped from 37 percent in 2021 to 30.1 percent in 2022, with declines observed...more
The old adage—March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb—didn’t quite hold true for the hospice sector, which experienced a late-month flurry of activity. The government gave the hospice sector a lot to consider,...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
On April 20, 2023, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced the release of ownership data for all Medicare-enrolled hospice and home health agencies. This release is consistent with the Department of...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
The White House recently announced that the COVID-19 national emergency and public health emergency (PHE) declarations will end on May 11, 2023. These declarations have been in place since the beginning of the COVID-19...more
The Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General (OIG) recently released a report detailing its evaluation of CMS’s primary fraud, abuse and waste investigators—the Unified Program Integrity...more
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that it had restarted the Targeted Probe and Educate (TPE) audit process, effective September 1, 2021. More recently, the Medicare Administrative Contractors for...more
Below is Alston & Bird’s Health Care Week in Review, which provides a synopsis of the latest news in healthcare regulations, notices, and guidance; federal legislation and congressional committee action; reports, studies, and...more
On March 30, 2020, CMS issued additional Section 1135 blanket waivers to provide the American healthcare system with additional flexibility to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. CMS is authorized under Section 1135 of the...more
The White House presented its FY 2021 budget to Congress in early February. The budget included HHS budget provisions reflecting the Trump Administration’s views on policy areas affecting hospice. ...more
On August 22, 2019, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued a report following up to an audit that the OIG performed in 2012 indicating that Medicare Part D paid for...more
In keeping with its recent recommendations to CMS, the Office of Inspector General for the US Department of Health and Human Services (OIG) is recommending increased oversight and compliance reporting requirements for...more
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (OIG) earlier this month issued two companion reports that called for increased regulatory scrutiny of hospices, greater transparency for...more
On July 9, 2019, the US Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (OIG) released two reports addressing hospice deficiencies and the risks, potential harm, and actual harm those deficiencies posed...more
On July 31, 2018, the Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released a portfolio titled “Vulnerabilities in the Medicare Hospice Program Affect Quality Care and Program...more
A LOOK BACK... A LOOK AHEAD - While the uncertainty associated with legislative efforts to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) dominated most of the headlines for the healthcare industry last year,...more
The HHS Office of Inspector General recently released a report indicating deficiencies in hospice election statements and physician certification of patient eligibility for hospice care. Medicare hospice care provides help...more
On November 10, 2016, the Office of Inspector General (“the OIG”) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“DHHS”) is charged with ensuring the integrity of more than 100 programs administered by DHHS, including...more
Spotlight on the False Claims Act - Why it matters: This month, we review a recent Ninth Circuit case that allowed a qui tam relator’s action against various Medicare Advantage organizations to proceed, holding that the...more
On March 31, 2016, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued a report on hospice billing for general inpatient care (GIP). According to the OIG, hospices billed Medicare for...more
The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published its update to the home health prospective payment system (HHPPS) for fiscal year (FY) 2016 in the August...more
Recent audits by the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) conclude that state survey agencies in a number of states and a leading national accrediting agency serving the home health and...more