Home Health & Hospice Week

Industry Notes:

OIG Targets Home Health, Hospice In 2015 Work Plan

HHA billing, GIP top hit list.

Watch for two OIG reports on HHAs to come out next year that could make your life harder.

The HHS Office of Inspector General is examining two home health agency issues that it plans to report on in 2015: questionable billing and hiring workers with criminal convictions.

“We will review compliance with various aspects of the home health PPS, including the documentation required in support of the claims paid by Medicare,” the OIG notes of the former topic. “Nearly all States have laws prohibiting certain health-care-related entities from employing individuals with certain types of criminal convictions,” the watchdog agency says of the latter topic.

The OIG is also investigating multiple HHA topics on the Medicaid side.

The OIG has two Medicare hospice topics on deck for 2015 as well: assisted living facility relationships and general inpatient care (GIP). 

“ALF residents have the longest lengths of stay in hospice care,” the OIG notes in the Work Plan. “These long stays bear further monitoring and examination.”

Of GIP, the OIG notes that it will “review hospice medical records to address concerns that this level of hospice care is being misused.”

See more details in the Work Plan at http://go.usa.gov/7kXP.

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