Home Health & Hospice Week

Beware payment suspensions without warning. The mandates contained in this year's health reform law are starting to hit the books, and the result could be more red tape for you. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has issued a proposed rule that would require new screening steps for Medicare participation, expanded authority to apply payment suspensions when fraud is suspected, and criteria for issuing a moratorium on new enrollment. CMS is also soliciting comments on how to require compliance plans from Medicare providers. Under the proposed screening procedures that would take effect in 2011, Medicare providers would be categorized on three risk levels: "limited," "moderate," and "high." Providers in each risk level would be subject to increasingly aggressive screening measures, CMS explains in the proposed rule published in the Sept. 23 Federal Register. Publicly traded companies would go into the limited risk group, while all hospices and existing home [...]