Be sure to keep track of your nurses’ licensure status, or you could end up paying a steep penalty. That’s the lesson Hernando-Pasco Hospice Inc. and Good Shepherd Hospice Inc. in Florida had to learn the hard way.
HPH and Good Shepherd self-disclosed that they “submitted claims to Federal health care programs for services provided by three nurses whose licenses expired and who continued to practice without active licenses,” the HHS Office of Inspector General says on its enforcement actions webpage. The hospices “agreed to pay $201,960.89 for allegedly violating the Civil Monetary Penalties Law,” the OIG notes.