Home Health & Hospice Week

Home care providers could see more frequent visits from surveyors. The Government Accountability Office has taken a look at Medicare survey procedures and isn't happy with what it's found, which could make home care providers' lives harder but help stem fraud and abuse. In 2007, most states were unable to complete their survey workload due to surveyor staffing shortages and other funding shortfalls, the GAO found in its new report (GAO-09-64). In 2000, HHAs, which are surveyed every three years, comprised about 3 percent of state surveyors' workloads. In 2007, that increased to 4 percent. Hospices, which are surveyed every seven years, made up 1 percent of surveyors' workload in 2000 and less than 1 percent in 2007, the report notes. About 86 percent of HHAs received state surveys in 2007 instead of surveys from private accrediting organizations, the GAO points out. The GAO gave the Centers for Medicare & [...]