Health Care Enforcement: The Impact on Private Equity Investments
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
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 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
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
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
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 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
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
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
On December 19, 2016, the US Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) posted a report examining the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS’s) “2-Midnight Rule.” The OIG concluded that...more
Effective September 12, 2016, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) lifted the temporary ban on patient status reviews of hospital short stays for Medicare beneficiaries. Those reviews are currently conducted by...more
Effective September 12, 2016, Beneficiary and Family Centered Care (BFCC) Quality Improvement Organizations (QIOs) resumed their hospital initial patient status reviews. The purpose of these reviews is to determine the...more
Earlier this month, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a final rule (Final Rule) modifying the Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) and Long Term Acute Care Hospital (LTCH) Prospective...more
On August 2, 2016, CMS released a final rule (Final Rule) with updates to the Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment System (Hospital IPPS) and Long-Term Care Hospital Prospective Payment System (LTCH PPS) affecting...more
Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on August 19, 2013, the two-midnight rule provided that an inpatient admission generally would only be payable under Medicare Part A if: (1) the admitting practitioner had an expectation,...more
Last week CMS announced a temporary "pause" in the review of inpatient admissions by the Beneficiary and Family Centered Care Quality Improvement Organizations (QIOs). CMS posted this announcement on its Inpatient Hospital...more
According to press reports, on May 4, 2016, CMS directed Beneficiary and Family Centered Care Quality Improvement Organizations (BFCC-QIOs) tasked with reviewing the appropriateness of short stay inpatient claims under the...more
CMS recently issued a proposed rule updating fiscal year (FY) 2017 Medicare payment policies and rates under the Medicare inpatient prospective payment system (IPPS) and the long-term care hospital (LTCH) prospective payment...more
On February 2, 2016, on behalf of more than 200 client hospitals, King & Spalding responded to CMS’s latest justification for its two-midnight rule and associated 0.2 percent payment reduction, published at 80 Fed. Reg. 75107...more
On December 1, 2015 CMS published a Notice in the Federal Register that provides additional information as to the methodology the agency used to arrive at the 0.2 percent rate reduction associated with the implementation of...more
On October 30, 2015, CMS issued its final policy changes, quality provisions and payment rates for the Medicare Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) and Ambulatory Surgical Center (ASC) Payment System for...more
On October 30, 2015, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released its final rule updating the Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) and Ambulatory Surgical Center (ASC) Payment System for...more
On October 30, 2015, CMS issued its final rule with comment period (Final Rule) for the Medicare hospital outpatient prospective payment system (OPPS) and the Medicare ambulatory surgical center (ASC) payment system for...more