On August 12, 2024, OIG announced the results of an audit of payments made to hospitals for inpatient claims with the Medicare Severity Diagnosis-Related Groups (MS-DRGs) that require ninety-six hours of consecutive...more
On July 10, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released its annual Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) and Ambulatory Surgical Center (ASC) Payment System Proposed Rule, which provides...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
The Office of Inspector General (OIG) recently issued two identical favorable OIG Advisory Opinions, concluding that, although the proposed arrangement (“Proposed Arrangement”) between a Medicare Supplement insurer (“MediGap...more
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on July 19, 2021, released its calendar year (CY) 2022 Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) and Ambulatory Surgical Center (ASC) Payment System Proposed...more
On March 10, 2021, the New York State Department of Financial Services (“DFS”) issued Insurance Circular Letter No. 4 (“Circular Letter”), which both explains modifications to the Insurance Law and the Public Health Law...more
Compliance Today (March 2021) - The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has provided the following compliance notice: “In a recent report, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) determined that Medicare made...more
Fresenius to defend itself from FCA suit following whistleblower allegations - A former employee alleges Fresenius engaged in arrangements with hospitals and nephrologists to ensure patient referrals to its dialysis...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
Report on Medicare Compliance 28, no. 40 (November 11, 2019) - CMS has given the green light to prior authorization for five types of procedures in an attempt to control “unnecessary increases” in these procedures as part...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
On July 23, 2019, Judge Rosemary Collyer of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia issued an opinion ruling in favor of ten Florida hospitals in their case challenging the calculation of their Medicare...more
The display copy of the proposed rulemaking for the FY 2020 Inpatient Psychiatric Facilities Prospective Payment System (IPF PPS) was posted on the Federal Register website last week (the Proposed Rule). The IPF PPS pays...more
No one wants to be faced with a large, unexpected medical bill after receiving health care services. Unfortunately, patients often find themselves in this situation after seeking emergency treatment or transportation,...more
A recent report issued by OIG finding an Indiana community hospital owed over $22 million in extrapolated overpayments carries some important lessons for hospitals audited under OIG’s hospital compliance program. As described...more
On August 17, 2018, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published its Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment Systems final rule for Fiscal Year 2019 (Final Rule). The Final Rule contains a number of important...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
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued the 2018 Medicare: Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment and Ambulatory Surgical Center Payment Systems and Quality Reporting Programs Final Rule with comment...more
Recent guidance from CMS suggests that some hospitals, and particularly specialty hospitals that provide mostly outpatient care, may soon find themselves the focus of surveyors' scrutiny. In early September, CMS issued...more
Acute care hospitals that provide Medicare outpatient services to inpatients of other hospitals should be billing and collecting payment from the other inpatient hospitals and not from Medicare....more
Hospitals with dangerously low inpatient volume and micro hospitals focused primarily on the delivery of outpatient and/or emergency room services instead of inpatient services beware: CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid...more
The rules that govern participation in the Medicare program are notoriously voluminous and complex. Indeed, courts have described them as akin to a “[body of] law written by James Joyce and edited by E.E. Cummings” and “among...more
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that beginning December 1, 2016, it is offering to settle certain inpatient-status claims to eligible hospitals willing to withdraw from the administrative...more
In a report released on June 17, 2016, OIG renewed its call for CMS to either eliminate the provider-based designation, which allows facilities owned by and integrated with a hospital to bill Medicare as a hospital outpatient...more