Home Health & Hospice Week

Experts skeptical of checks and balances. What may bother home health agencies even more than the new alternative sanctions going into place are how surveyors will wield them. Many commenters on the proposed rule voiced worries over rogue or just plain mistaken surveyors imposing punishing penalties based on erroneous deficiencies. Or surveyors could end up as "bounty hunters," imposing fines to enrich their own state, one commenter said. "Determinations on whether to impose alternative sanctions and the specific sanction to be imposed will not be left to the sole discretion of an HHA surveyor," the Centers for Medicare & Med-icaid Services insists in the 2013 home health pro-spective payment system final rule. "First, condition-level-findings by the surveyor are reviewed by the [Survey Agency] Office before the SA sends their noncompliance certification and enforcement recommendation to the CMS [Regional Office]. Second, all final decisions regarding whether or not to impose a [...]