Home Health & Hospice Week

If you need a reminder of why you must check the HHS Office of Inspector General’s exclusions list for every new hire, look no further than a Connecticut home health agency.

CareCo Medical and its owner/CEO Helga Pfanner have agreed to pay more than $28,000 for employing an individual excluded from all federal health care programs. In November 2018, CareCo and Pfanner hired physical therapist Todd Roberts for a management position at the agency. But Roberts had defaulted on a Corporate Integrity Agreement with the OIG and was excluded in 2015. He worked at the Waterford agency until March 2019.

Do this: “In order to avoid potential liability, health care providers should check the List of Excluded Individuals/ Entities on the HHS-OIG web site [at] https://oig.hhs.gov/exclusions/,” the OIG urges in the release.