Fraud & Abuse:
OASIS, Documentation Troubles Featured In OIG's Latest Report
Published on Thu May 31, 2012
Watchdog agency lists millions in fraud settlements from the last six months.The feds want some things to change in home care, the HHS Office of Inspector General indicates in a new report.In its latest semiannual report to Congress, which the watchdog agency issues every six months, the OIG revisits its findings from a February report taking the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Ser-vices to task for not having stricter OASIS data submission standards (see Eli's HCW, Vol. XXI, No. 9, p. 66). "HHAs did not properly submit required OASIS data for 6 percent of claims filed in 2009, which represented over $1 billion in Medicare payments," the semiannual report emphasizes to Congress. "CMS should identify all HHAs that failed to submit OASIS data and apply its 2 percent payment reduction authority," among other measures, the OIG urges.Watch out: CMS appears to already have heeded this suggestion from the OIG. In [...]