Hospice Insights Podcast - What's the Latest on UPICs? Highlights From Recent Audit Activity, Part II
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
Gentiva, the renamed former Kindred at Home, agreed to pay $19.4 million to resolve claims that its predecessor company, Kindred at Home and related companies, violated the False Claims Act by retaining overpayments for...more
Introduction - Polsinelli proudly introduces the Health Care Fraud and Abuse 2023 Year in Review, a comprehensive examination of the evolving landscape surrounding the False Claims Act (“FCA”) and fraud & abuse enforcement...more
On August 25, 2023, the Third Circuit continued its trend of rulings unfavorable to FCA healthcare defendants in the latest appeal of U.S. ex rel. Druding et al. v. Care Alternatives et al., No. 22-1035, 2023 WL 5494333 (3d...more
Lens Manufacturer Agrees To Pay $16.4 Million To Resolve Alleged Violations of the False Claims Act and Anti-Kickback Statute - Essilor International, Essilor of America, Inc., Essilor Laboratories of America Inc., and...more
Supreme Court Declines to Review Issue of “Objective Falsity” Under False Claims Act - On February 22, 2021, the United States Supreme Court denied petitions for certiorari in a case that could have addressed the issue of...more
Many health care providers treating senior patients rely on Medicare reimbursement and undertake significant measures to ensure proper billing and compliant practices. However, providers across the country may soon be subject...more
On June 3, 2020, the Sixth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of qui tam claims as barred, citing prior public disclosures. Holloway v. Heartland Hospice, Inc., Case No. 19-3646 (6th Cir. 2020)....more
Last week, the Third Circuit joined several other appellate courts in finding that medical opinions related to medical necessity of hospice services can be subject to scrutiny and found to be “false” for purposes of proving a...more
Last week, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit held that prognoses of terminal illness submitted in support of hospice claims for reimbursement could be actionable false statements under the False Claims...more
On March 4, 2020, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals held in United States ex rel. Druding v. Care Alternatives, No. 18-3298, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 6795 (3d Cir. Mar. 4, 2020) that a difference of opinion between a medical...more
The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled last week that whistleblower relators need not show “objective falsity” to prove their claims, and that a dispute among physician experts about a clinical...more
Federal enforcers typically announce (formally as well as informally) work plans or focus areas for the upcoming year that can provide some guidance as to where providers might anticipate enforcement action and, where they...more
In the Care Alternatives False Claims Act (FCA) appeal, a panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit on March 4 reversed the summary judgment granted to hospice provider Care Alternatives at the district court,...more
After litigation spanning more than a decade, hospice provider AseraCare announced its $1 million settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in a closely-watched False Claims Act (FCA) case in the U.S. District...more
$3 billion recovered under the False Claims Act (“FCA”). That’s what the US Department of Justice (“DOJ”) reported collecting in FY2019. The health care and life sciences industries accounted for $2.6 billion of the total...more
• Reasonable disagreement among clinicians, by itself, does not result in a false claim. • Clinical judgment must be objectively false to constitute an FCA violation. • A clinical judgment may only be objectively false...more
In a highly anticipated opinion in the AseraCare case, issued on September 9, 2019, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the district court’s holding that “a clinical judgment of terminal illness warranting hospice...more
On Monday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit issued its long-awaited and closely watched decision in United States v. AseraCare Inc.. The court ruled that a claim cannot be deemed false under the False Claims...more
More than two years after the Northern District of Alabama granted summary judgment in a False Claims Act (FCA) case in favor of AseraCare Inc., holding that “contradiction based on clinical judgment or opinion alone cannot...more
On June 26, 2019, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio granted a motion to dismiss a qui tam lawsuit against HCR ManorCare Inc. and its subsidiaries, including Heartland Hospice Services, LLC...more
Hospice providers continue to face increased scrutiny and enforcement actions based on allegations that beneficiaries do not meet the requisite eligibility requirements. On October 1, 2018, a United States District Court...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
Vitas Hospice, the largest for-profit hospice chain in the United States, and its owner, Chemed Corporation, agreed to pay $75 million to settle allegations that Vitas Hospice submitted false claims for hospice services...more
Bass, Berry & Sims is pleased to announce the release of its fifth annual Healthcare Fraud and Abuse Review 2016. The Review, compiled by the firm’s Healthcare Fraud Task Force, is an industry-leading guide to healthcare...more
Admissibility of statistical sampling to prove liability in FCA suit is fact dependent. In a February 14, 2017 decision, the Fourth Circuit declined to rule on the question of whether statistical sampling can be used to...more