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
Looking for a simple, easy-to-implement way to lower your risk of overpayments? We have one on this week’s podcast!...more
Below is Alston & Bird’s Health Care Week in Review, which provides a synopsis of the latest news in health care regulations, notices, and guidance; federal legislation and congressional committee action; reports, studies,...more
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
Until recently, deactivation of a hospice’s Medicare provider number seemed like an action reserved for egregious conduct. But with law changes and an enhanced focus on enrollment, good hospices have found themselves facing a...more
Texas Pharmaceutical Marketer Sentenced for $59 Million Medications Fraud Conspiracy - On July 12, Quintan Cockerell, a Texas pharmaceutical marketer, was sentenced to over two years in prison and ordered to pay more than...more
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 - Texas Federal Court Ruling Puts Noncompete Ban on Hold - A Texas federal court issued a preliminary injunction against the Federal Trade Commission's noncompete ban, which if implemented would allow existing...more
Big Baby’s Big Foul: Former NBA Star Glen 'Big Baby' Davis Sentenced to 40 Months for Healthcare Fraud Scheme - On May 9, former Boston Celtics forward Glen “Big Baby” Davis was sentenced to 40 months in prison following...more
Last week, CMS issued a proposed rule (Proposed Rule) for fiscal year (FY) 2025 aiming to update Medicare hospice payments and aggregate cap amount in accordance with existing statutory and regulatory requirements. The...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
News Briefs - U.S. to Accelerate Medicare Payments in Wake of Cyberattack - The U.S. government said it will accelerate Medicare and Medicaid payments to some hospitals hurt by a hack at insurer UnitedHealth's technology unit...more
It came as a surprise to our team when we learned that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) was ending the hospice component of Value-Based Insurance Design (VBID) on December 31, 2024. Upon learning this, Husch...more
Applicable Provider Types: Hospice; Home Health Agency - Is Your Entity in Compliance? The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized and expanded its so-called 36-month rule with certain changes...more
Since the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) paused much of its audit activity during the COVID Public Health Emergency, the most recent rounds of Medicare audit activity may represent the first “look” at the...more
The US Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized important changes to the Medicare enrollment regulations applicable to hospices and home health agencies (HHAs), including increasing the level of screening that...more
Palliative Care Defined The term “palliative care” is often used by doctors and other health care professionals during a serious illness or toward the end of life. Federal regulations define palliative care as...more
On Nov. 13, 2023, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized its 2024 home health rule, which includes certain changes applicable to Medicare-enrolled hospices. This rule initially was proposed June 30,...more
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) has finalized 2024 home health rules to include application of the home health “36-month rule” to hospice providers. The revised rule will forbid any change in majority...more
AGG’s Home Health & Hospice team publishes a quarterly newsletter covering legal and regulatory topics specific to the home and community-based healthcare industry. The fields of end-of-life and home healthcare present...more
A New Jersey hospice provider must continue its long fight against whistleblowers alleging it violated the False Claims Act (“FCA”) by seeking Medicare reimbursement for patients whose documentation did not support hospice...more
The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”), the agency that administers the Medicare hospice benefit, has announced increased scrutiny of hospice programs in the wake of growing concerns over hospice service...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
In its continued effort to curb fraud and abuse in the hospice industry, on Aug. 22, 2023, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced it was making unannounced site visits to every Medicare-enrolled hospice...more
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) issued a Proposed Rule on July 10, 2023, that, if finalized, will revise the Medicare Provider Enrollment requirements to expand the current Home Health Agency (“HHA”)...more
On July 28, 2023, CMS issued a final rule (CMS-1787-F) updating Medicare hospice payment rates and the aggregate cap amount applicable to fiscal year 2024 (the Final Rule). According to CMS, the Final Rule is part of CMS’s...more