Home Health & Hospice Week

Will legitimate providers get caught in the crossfire? You've got your eye on the RACs, the ZPICs, the OIG, and Medicare auditors, but now CMS is taking its oversight up a notch with a new interagency strike force. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the Department of Justice have launched the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT) to combat fraud in the Medicare program, with a special focus on home health agencies and durable medical equipment suppliers. CMS will expand its strike force team operation to target fraud locally in Detroit and Houston. The strike force already operates in South Florida and Los Angeles. The strike force teams will eventually spread to 10 other cities not yet named, the Associated Press reports. Home care providers in Detroit and Houston should expect more of the tough actions their colleagues in South Florida and L.A. have seen. [...]