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Home Health & Hospice Week

Fraud & Abuse:

Senate Puts Home Health Therapy In The Hot Seat

Published on Wed Apr 21, 2010

Wall Street Journal article sparks congressional HHA probe. Changes in your therapy visit patterns under prospective payment system revisions may land you in hot water, just like it has for four publicly held companies. Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Ranking Member Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) on May 12 requested documentation from four for-profit home health agency chains related to therapy provision and PPS payment incentives. The request letters went to Amedisys Inc., Gentiva Health Services Inc., LHC Group Inc., and Almost Family Inc. The request came on the heels of a Wall Street Journal article that claimed that HHA therapy practice patterns had changed in response to PPS payment revisions that took place in 2008 (see Eli's HCW, Vol. XIX, No. 18, p. 143). Agencies manipulated visit numbers to increase profits, the article charged. For example: The number of patients receiving 10 therapy visits from Baton Rouge, La.- [...]
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