Home Health & Hospice Week

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and law enforcement officials are cracking down hard on wheelchair fraudsters through Operation Wheeler Dealer.
 
Here are some statistics CMS cited in its March 31 Open Door Forum on wheelchair issues:

CMS has referred 150 fraud cases to law enforcement officials since Wheeler Dealer began in September.
Ten percent of those cases are closed, with six convictions and eight indictments secured thus far.
The Medicare program has recouped $5 million from the cases so far. CMS also cited these statistics regarding supplier numbers:
The National Supplier Clearinghouse had 3,426 supplier number applications pending at the time of the call.
Fifty-three percent of those applications had been pending less than 60 days, 15 percent 60 to 90 days, 10 percent 91 to 120 days and 22 percent greater than 120 days.