Health Care Enforcement: The Impact on Private Equity Investments
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued regulations applicable to Medicare Advantage (MA) plans—also commonly referred to as managed Medicare or Part C Medicare—in April 2023 (CMS 4201–F) that address,...more
CMS estimates that between 2017 and 2021, Medicare Part A improperly paid $23.9 billion for inpatient hospital stays, with $7.8 billion attributable to short stays that did not qualify for Medicare Part A. On June 13, 2024,...more
On June 5, 2023, CMS’s Final Rule regarding, among other things, “Technical Changes to the Medicare Advantage Program” will become effective – refer to the CMS Fact Sheet and the Final Rule as published in the Federal...more
On April 5, 2023, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a Final Rule (CMS-4201-F) regarding the Medicare Advantage (MA) and Part D programs. The Final Rule includes changes related to various aspects of...more
In what passes for neon lights in the regulatory world, CMS said Medicare Advantage (MA) plans must follow the two-midnight rule, its case-by-case exception and the inpatient-only (IPO) list, according to the final 2024 rule...more
On January 25, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed a lower court ruling that the Secretary of HHS violated the due process rights of Medicare beneficiaries by failing to provide an administrative...more
In its November 2020 Work Plan update, OIG announced it will begin auditing short stay inpatient hospital claims under the Two Midnight Rule, and when appropriate, recommend overpayment collections. OIG does not specify the...more
On November 5, 2019, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania ruled on a motion to dismiss a False Claims Act (FCA) qui tam suit filed by the United States Department of Justice, long after it...more
On August 20, 2019, the United States exercised its authority under the False Claims Act (FCA) to seek dismissal of a relator’s qui tam suit because of the defendant’s burdensome discovery demands, in Polansky v. Executive...more
Health plans and their delegated IPAs are using a number of different tactics to deny payment for inpatient services by improperly classifying inpatient claims as observation or other types of outpatient status. Payers are...more
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ proposed outpatient prospective payment system rule contains a number of significant changes and proposals impacting hospital operations and payments in calendar year 2020,...more
On July 29, 2019, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) released the CY 2020 Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment Systems (“OPPS”) proposed rule [CMS-1717-P]. ...more
Effective May 8, 2019, CMS temporarily suspended Beneficiary and Family Centered Care Quality Improvement Organization (BFCC-QIO) Short Stay reviews and Higher Weighted Diagnosis-Related Group (HWDRG) reviews. Reviews will be...more
n a motion filed last week in Alexander v. Azar, No. 3:11-cv-1703-MPS (D. Conn.), HHS argued that it cannot be sued by Medicare beneficiaries objecting to a hospital’s decision to admit them as inpatients instead of placing...more
On January 8, 2019, almost exactly a year after CMS removed total knee arthroplasties from the Medicare Inpatient-Only List, CMS released additional guidance regarding the application of the Two-Midnight Rule to these cases. ...more
Effective for hospital inpatient admissions on or after October 1, 2018, CMS has removed the requirement that a signed physician order must be present in the medical record to establish inpatient coverage. While this guidance...more
On May 14, 2018, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas announced that Memorial Hermann Health System (MHHS) will pay $1,929,071.38 to resolve allegations that it improperly billed government healthcare...more
On April 24, 2018, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) published the 2019 Medicare Inpatient Prospective Payment System proposed rule (2019 Proposed IPPS Rule), which contains a number of proposals designed...more
On April 24, 2018, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) Proposed Rule (CMS-1694-P). Among other changes, CMS proposes eliminating...more
Genesis Medical Center in Davenport, Iowa has reached a settlement with the Department of Justice related to improper hospital admissions from January 1, 2013 to December 31, 2016. According to the DOJ, Genesis “improperly...more
On August 14, 2017, CMS announced an expansion of a Targeted Probe and Educate (TPE) review strategy for Medicare Administrative Contractors (MAC) reviews. Many providers were familiar with Probe and Educate reviews in...more
Although the Two Midnight Rule became effective on October 1, 2013, CMS had not updated manual guidance to incorporate the Two Midnight Rule until recently. The CMS updated the Medicare Benefit Policy Manual earlier this...more
What's new from Medicare in the areas of the Two-Midnight rule and observation services? CMS recently published updates to a Medicare manual reflecting clarifications to its Two-Midnight policy, a Medicare Quality Improvement...more
Although the Two Midnight Rule was effective October 1, 2013, until recently, CMS had not updated the Medicare Benefit Policy Manual (MBPM) to incorporate the Two Midnight Rule and its revisions to prior admission...more
On December 19, 2016, the HHS OIG issued a report on Medicare’s 2-midnight rule titled “Vulnerabilities Remain Under Medicare 2-Midnight Hospital Policy.” The report reviews data from 2013 and 2014 and reaches several...more