Home Health & Hospice Week

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services recently warned some trade associations to be on the lookout for companies that are attempting to perform HIPAA cons.

CMS said the company would ask for a person by name, advise that person that a HIPAA seminar was taking place at a certain hotel in or near their area, and would aggressively assert that the provider must attend the seminar and that attendance was mandatory. The fee was $200 if a credit card number was provided immediately, but increased to $400 if they wished to pay at the door. While the seminar may or may not have been legitimate, don't be fooled if this happens to you and be sure to report this information to your CMS regional office.

In addition to CMS' awareness of such schemes, the HHS Office of Inspector General says there have been scores of reported HIPAA and Medicaid scams perpetrated this year. A group called Doctor's Assistance Corp. "uses strong sales tactics" and has "made misrepresentations by telephone that their seminars are accredited by the Office for Civil Rights," says OIG spokesperson Judy Holtz. Furthermore, she says, "DAC employees have threatened providers that, in order to be fully HIPAA-compliant, they must attend the DAC seminars."

One of DAC's tactics is to call up individuals and say they must attend HIPAA seminars, reports OIG senior counsel Caryn Gordon. They aggressively seek credit card information over the phone and "they use such tactics as telling you the fourth and eighth person from your office will attend for free."

Gordon tells Eli "the best protection for providers isn't necessarily for us to shut them down, but to get the word out to providers that these scams are occurring."

If someone calls you up offering HIPAA services that claims to be with a state agency but asks for your credit card information, don't panic. "The best thing to do is to verify" that solicitation, recommends Sharon Hartsfield, an attorney in the St. Petersburg, FL office of Holland & Knight.

For HIPAA-related seminars or services, check out the Web site of the HHS Office for Civil Rights. Hartsfield says there are regional OCR representatives you can call to verify someone's story. All of the seminars the OCR has held regionally have been free, Hartsfield adds, and it has additional, free training on the phone.