Eli's Hospice Insider

Beware your financial relationships with your medical directors, suggests the latest HHS Office of Inspector General semiannual report.

Harper’s Hospice Care Inc. in Meridian, Miss., agreed to pay $150,000 for allegedly violating the civil money penalty law provisions on physician self-referrals and kickbacks, the OIG says in the report. Harper’s Hospice paid remuneration to a physician in the form of medical directorship fees. The OIG contends that Harper’s Hospice paid the remuneration to the physician in exchange for the physician referring patients for hospice services and pre-signing blank forms for patients treated by the hospice.

The OIG also reviewed the fraud scheme at Home Care Hospice Inc. in Pittsburgh and the 14-year prison sentence drawn by owner Matthew Kolodesh. Ten other defendants have been sentenced to a combined eight years in prison in connection with this scheme, the OIG notes.

See the report at http://oig.hhs.gov/reports-and-publications/semiannual/index.asp#sar.