Home Health & Hospice Week

Penalties are likely still coming when you repay past 60 days.

You’ve got another year before CMS ex-pects you to return overpayments within 60 days of discovering them.

In the Feb. 17 Federal Register, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced that it was extending the usual three-year deadline for final rule publication by one year, to February 2016, due to “extenuating circumstances.”

Reminder: In the Feb. 16, 2012, Federal Register, CMS proposed the two-month deadline for repayments of self-identified overpayments ranging from errors to medically unnecessary services (see Eli’s HCW, Vol. XXI, No. 7).

“In this case, the complexity of the rule and scope of comments warrants the extension of the timeline for publication,” CMS says in the most recent notice.

The proposed rule calls for “substantial sanctions for providers that fail to repay Medicare overpayments within 60 days,” reminds law firm Hall Render in an analysis. “The proposed rule also includes a 10-year look-back period during which providers are responsible for keeping track of claims and checking for any overpayments.”