Home Health & Hospice Week

Here’s a reminder of why you should always check new hires against the exclusion list.

An Alabama hospice is paying the piper after confessing to its compliance sins.

After it self-disclosed conduct to the HHS Office of Inspector General, Hospice of Limestone County Inc. in Alabama agreed to pay $500,000 for allegedly violating the Civil Monetary Penalties Law, the OIG says on its self-disclosure webpage. “OIG alleged that HOL submitted claims to Medicare for hospice services that lacked recertifi­cations of terminal illness,” the OIG says.

Meanwhile, a home health agency self-disclosure case shows why it’s important to check new hires for exclusions. RiverKids Pediatric Home Health in Texas “employed an individual that they knew or should have known was excluded from participation in Federal health care programs,” the OIG says.

After RiverKids self-disclosed the conduct to OIG, the agency agreed to pay $66,594.90 for the violation, according to the federal watchdog agency.