Home Health & Hospice Week

How do you think your agency would fare if your surveyor was an aggrieved former employee whom you fired? That’s what one Boise, Idaho HHA has had to deal with, and the outcome wasn’t good, it claims in a lawsuit.

Saint Alphonsus Home Health and Hospice sued the Department of Health & Human Services in March when Medicare tried to suspend its payments based on its former employee’s survey findings, reports the Idaho Statesman. In the suit, Saint Alphonsus called the survey and followup visit “fatally flawed” and said they were overseen by a “hopelessly conflicted and biased nurse.” The agency had dismissed the nurse in 2014 after concerns arose about his work, the lawsuit said.

HHS claimed the conflict-of-interest argument was a “red herring,” but a judge put the sanctions on hold while the agency appealed the survey findings, the newspaper says.