Home Health & Hospice Week

Medicare has shelled out about $70 million to 29 states to facilitate background checks under the National Background Check Program for Long-Term Care Providers, but the effort that launched in 2010 is far from smooth.

In a new report examining the program that involves background checks for employees in home health and hospice, among other long-term care settings, the HHS Office of Inspector General notes that Idaho and Mississippi “lacked State legislative authority to implement some Program requirements” and “both States encountered challenges with coordination between State-level departments responsible for seeking legislative authority.” The states also failed to report program-related data consistently.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services “has been aware of challenges related to the coordination between State Departments of Health and their State criminal justice departments, as well as Governors’ offices and state legislative branches,” CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure says in CMS’ response letter to the report. “CMS has shared lessons learned and best practices among the states,” Brooks-LaSure tells the OIG.

The 31-page report is at https://oig.hhs.gov/oei/reports/ OEI-07-20-00181.pdf.