Heed Caution: Takeaways From the OIG's Advance Care Planning Report
Surprise! What Hospices Need to Know About the No Surprises Act
CPT code 97039 has been in a state of constant flux in Florida and recent rulings have created greater change. First, one must understand what 97039 is and its history. According to the American Medical Association (AMA), CPT...more
The comment period for the CMS CY 2025 Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) Proposed Rule recently closed on Monday, September 9th. Based on previous years, the Final Rule can be expected as soon as early November, taking effect...more
In the proposed CY 2025 Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) published in the Federal Register on July 31, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is soliciting comments on a proposal to revise the Medicare Claims...more
The major calendar year proposed regs are now out, with thousands of pages of text to digest. Since a plethora of issues are embedded in these regs, including the Calendar Year (CY) 2025 Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) and the...more
Split (or shared) visits—the current term used by the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)—allow non-physician practitioners (NPPs) and physicians who work for the same employer/entity to share patient visits on the...more
On November 29, 2023, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published the 2024 annual update to the designated health services (DHS) Code List. This annual update includes important changes for Medicare providers...more
In recent years, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has expanded payment for remote monitoring services in an effort to pay for non-face-to-face services that improve care coordination for Medicare...more
On November 2, 2023, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized new policies related to remote physiologic monitoring (RPM) and remote therapeutic monitoring (RTM) services reimbursed under the Medicare...more
On September 20, 2023, the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and the Treasury (the Departments) announced the Federal Independent Dispute Resolution (IDR) Process Administrative Fee and Certified IDR Entity Fee...more
On January 18, 2023, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a Memorandum to all state survey agency directors addressing erroneous schizophrenia coding and increased transparency of Nursing Home Care...more
OIG issued a report last week examining alleged billing irregularities relating to COVID-19 tests (the Report). The Report explains that in response to increased Medicare Part B spending on COVID-19 tests in 2020, OIG...more
On December 1, 2022, the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC) Health Care Subgroup published a report about the use of telehealth in selected health care programs across six federal agencies during the first year...more
Recently, the Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) for the Department of Health and Human Services published its Report on Medicare Telehealth Services During the First Year of the Pandemic: Program Integrity Risks...more
On September 2, 2022, OIG published a report of its findings summarizing its investigation into whether providers appropriately billed for Medicare beneficiaries’ telehealth services. This report analyzed data from the...more
On July 7, 2022, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed five new changes to Remote Therapeutic Monitoring (RTM) services under the Medicare program. The changes, part of the proposed 2023 Medicare...more
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and its audit contractors have recently increased their use of Targeted Probe and Educate (TPE) audits to target providers suspected of improperly billing Medicare. While...more
For the last few years, we have been closely monitoring and reporting on COVID-19 related fraud enforcement efforts by federal agencies. We detailed those findings in our Health Care Enforcement 2020 Year in Review & 2021...more
Physician consolidation continued on a robust pace this past year, despite, or maybe because of, the Pandemic. Physician-owned orthopedic practices appear to be no exception to this trend. Interestingly, orthopedic...more
A pair of recent reports issued by the Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) and Cotiviti, a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) Recovery Audit Contractor (“RAC”), indicate a resumed...more
...On July 13, 2021, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released an advance copy of the calendar year (CY) 2022 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) proposed payment rule, to be published on July 23, 2021....more
...The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has proposed permanent Medicare coverage of audio-only mental health telehealth services. Currently, Medicare covers audio-only telehealth under temporary waivers that...more
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has proposed a new category of digital health services—Remote Therapeutic Monitoring (RTM)—to complement the existing suite of Remote Physiological Monitoring (RPM) codes...more
Health plans are using both new and old methods to deny healthcare providers’ claims, all of which are legally and factually unsupportable. These tactics have repeatedly been rejected by arbitrators in scores of arbitrations,...more
Report on Medicare Compliance 30, no. 22 (June 14, 2021) - A Colorado radiation therapy provider has agreed to pay $3.569 million in a civil monetary penalty settlement with the HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG). ...more
Our Virtual Regional Healthcare Compliance Conferences provide updates on the latest news in regulatory requirement, compliance enforcement, and strategies to develop effective compliance programs. Watch, listen, and ask...more