Home Health & Hospice Week

Medicare kicks out providers at increasing rate.

Medicare has stats to back up what home care providers have known for a while — the program is cracking down harder on fraud and abuse.

The government has revoked the ability of 14,663 providers and suppliers to bill Medicare over the past two years — almost two and a half times the number that had been revoked in the previous two years, according to new Department of Health and Human Services statistics, reports USA Today. In some states, the number of revocations has quadrupled.

Affordable Care Act anti-fraud provisions, particularly data analysis capabilities, have allowed the enforcement ramp-up, CMS’s Peter Budetti told the newspaper.

New focus: As part of CMS’s antifraud efforts, beneficiaries will begin receiving newly formatted Medicare Summary Notices, the agency notes in a statement. "The redesigned notice will make it easier for people with Medicare to understand their benefits, file an appeal if a claim is denied, and spot claims for services they never received," CMS says.

"The new Medicare Summary Notice gives seniors and people with disabilities accurate information on the services they receive in a simpler, clearer way," says CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner. "It’s an important tool for staying in-formed on benefits, and for spotting potential Medicare fraud by making the claims history easier to review.

CMS will send out the new notices quarterly, it says.