Home Health & Hospice Week

Feds show lack of understanding in interpretation, industry says. You may have to change the whole way you do business if the feds stick by a new interpretation of telemarketing fraud for durable medical equipment. In a special fraud alert published in the Jan. 14 Federal Register, the HHS Office of Inspector General warns suppliers that they should not contact a Medicare beneficiary by phone based solely on a physician's verbal or written order for durable medical equipment. New twist: Suppliers can initially contact beneficiaries via phone only with express written consent, the OIG reminds suppliers in the alert that is based on an original 2003 alert. But the new part is the OIG's interpretation of consent: "A physician's preliminary written or verbal order is not a substitute for the requisite written consent of a Medicare beneficiary," the OIG insists. Industry trade groups were immediately up in arms over the new [...]