Home Health & Hospice Week

OIG takes CMS to task for neglecting congressionally mandated enforcement tools.

If it took you more than two decades to complete a task your boss gave you, how would that fly? That's what's happened with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and intermediate sanctions for home health agencies, the HHS Office of Inspector General says in a new report on the topic.

In the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1987 (OBRA 1987), Congress directed CMS to implement intermediate sanctions for noncompliant HHAs, the OIG notes. Such sanctions can include civil money penalties, payment suspensions, and appointment of temporary management. They "would provide CMS with important tools to enforce compliance," the OIG maintains.

Currently, CMS's only punishment option when agencies receive survey deficiencies is to terminate them from the program, notes the National Association for Home Care & Hospice.

CMS issued a proposed rule on intermediate sanctions in 1991, but never issued a final rule and withdrew the proposal in 2000, the OIG recounts. CMS has missed other deadlines along the way, and is now projecting a proposed rule in September 2012.

"We continue to recommend that CMS make HHA intermediate sanctions a high priority and complete their implementation as soon as possible," the OIG urges in the report online at http://go.usa.gov/PqL