Don't be too sure that your visiting home care staff aren't eligible for workers' compensation if they get into an accident on their way to their first visit or coming home from their last.
Usually, under the "coming and going" rule, workers comp doesn't apply when employees are traveling to and from work. But that wasn't the case for a Connecticut home care worker hit by a car while crossing the street on the way to her first visit of the day, according to an Aug. 3 decision from the Connecticut Court of Appeals.
Because Rose Labadie was a home care worker, traveling to patients' homes was "integral to the service provided by her employment," the court says. So she deserves workers' comp from Norwalk Rehabilitation Services Inc. for the injuries she sustained in the February 1998 accident, the court says in the decision at www.jud.state.ct.us/external/supapp/Cases/AROap/AP84/84ap396.pdf.
CMS plans to issue its draft codes and wheelchair coverage guidance by next spring, it said. The Restore Access to Mobility Partnership (RAMP) coalition wants CMS to make sure the new codes are a good match for current technology and practice; set an adequate weight limit for standard categories; and modify the basic equipment package, RAMP says.
Brubaker's scheme started to unravel in May 2003, when a bank investigator questioned two of the VNA's checks deposited into Brubaker's personal account, the paper reports.
Texas' Medicaid fraud control unit will accept a reward Sept. 20 for record performance in criminal fraud enforcement for 2004. The MFCU, which opened eight new field offices this year, increased its identification of illegal overpayments to fraudulent operators by 85 percent to more than $27 million. Its staffing levels rose from 36 to 110 and are expected to increase to more than 200 by the end of fiscal year 2005, according to state Attorney General Greg Abbott.
The unit was also recognized by the Department of Health and Human Services as recipient of the annual Inspector General's State Fraud Award.