In its December 18, 2023, Enforcement listserv notice, HHS’s Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) published its Work Plan Updates for December. Although six updates were published, this article will only highlight the...more
In its August 15, 2023, Enforcement listserv notice, the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) published its Work Plan Updates for August. This article will highlight three of the...more
Report on Medicare Compliance 30, no. 15 (April 19, 2021) - CMS’s supplemental medical review contractor (SMRC) has added outpatient therapy claims to its list of postpayment reviews, according to its website. The SMRC,...more
The OIG has indicated concern that patients suffering from opioid use disorder may experience difficulty accessing medication-assisted treatment (MAT), resulting in under-utilization of this intervention that offers what the...more
Report on Medicare Compliance 29, no. 25 (July 13, 2020) - Ophthalmic Consultants PA in Sarasota, Florida, agreed to pay $4.8 million to settle false claims allegations that it billed Medicare and other federal payers...more
Report on Medicare Compliance 29, no. 25 (July 13, 2020) - When a physician’s telehealth visit with a Medicare patient on FaceTime cut out after five minutes, they shifted to an audio-only visit, with the physician and...more
Report on Medicare Compliance Volume 29, no. 22 (June 15, 2020): - The HHS Office of Inspector General has updated its Work Plan, and new items include opioid treatment challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. - In a...more
Report on Medicare Compliance 29, no. 15 (April 20, 2020) - Maury Regional Medical Center in Tennessee has agreed to pay $1.7 million to settle false claims allegations over MS-DRG coding, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for...more
Report on Medicare Compliance 29, no. 7 (February 24, 2020) - Guardian Elder Care Holdings Inc., which operates more than 50 skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, and its related...more
The OIG updates its Work Plan monthly to identify audits and evaluations that are underway or proposed by the OIG's Office of Audit Services and Office of Evaluation and Inspections. The October 2019 update identifies new...more
Delve into compliance hot topics and issues, including risk adjustment, CMS compliance, ethical leadership, data security, audits, and the challenges of the job. You’ll learn the latest practices, share strategies, and...more
Report on Medicare Compliance 28, no. 38 (Oct. 28, 2019) - - Doctors Hospital of Augusta in Georgia agreed to pay $180,000 in a civil monetary penalty settlement over alleged violations of the Emergency Medical Treatment...more
California physician Donald Woo Lee was found guilty Oct. 17 for his role in providing medically unnecessary procedures to Medicare beneficiaries, upcoding, and repackaging single-use catheters for re-use, the Department of...more
Recent developments by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) highlight the increase in scrutiny of nursing facilities. In addition to a topic added in August, the OIG...more
Contract Review Tips for Long-Term Care Facilities - A long-term care facility can execute contracts with many different vendors including food product and service vendors, laundry and linen providers, IT companies, and...more
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) recently updated its Work Plan in August 2018 to add an additional topic focusing on nursing facilities that receive Medicare and...more
Providers, plans, and vendors that provide services under the Medicare Advantage program, should be aware that the Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) is once again...more
The OIG added 12 new items to its Work Plan in the August 2018 update. Hot topics related to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) oversight in this month's Work Plan include: state oversight of opioids; potential...more
The OIG added six new items to its Work Plan in the July 2018 update. Areas addressed include HHS cybersecurity vulnerabilities, increased payments for transfer claims with outliers, oversight of funds for Access Increases in...more
The OIG added seven new items to its Work Plan in the May 2018 update. Among the issues addressed are emergency preparedness, the impact of generics on Medicaid drug rebates, reviews of claims for Part B outpatient cardiac...more
Last summer, we alerted our clients to the OIG's inclusion of telehealth claims to its work plan, and we now see the results of the OIG's focused review in a report first released at the beginning of April....more
The OIG's April 2018 Work Plan update added six new items to its active list of scheduled audits, inspections, and evaluations. The OIG indicates its intention to review beneficiary access to drugs under Part D, as well as...more
The OIG added three items to its Work Plan with the February 2018 update, as listed in the chart below. Two of the items concern annual reports, one addressing the performance of Medicaid Fraud Control Units and the other...more
The OIG added six new items to its Work Plan with the January 2018 update, as listed in the chart below. Consistent with prior Work Plan missives, the OIG continues to focus its efforts on reducing prescription opioid misuse....more
In this episode, Hilary Bowman summarizes recent updates to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Office of Inspector General (OIG) 2017 Work Plan. Specifically, she discusses OIG’s plans to investigate and audit...more