Eli's Hospice Insider

Hospice oversight continues to ramp up, and a recent HHS Office of Inspector General report may give you an idea of just how much.

In 2018, the OIG had 128 open hospice investigations, eight of which concerned patient abuse or neglect, the OIG says in its annual report on Medicaid Fraud Control Units.

In the same year, federal authorities secured one hospice-related criminal conviction resulting in nearly $24,000 in recoveries, and one civil settlement or judgment totaling nearly $30,000.

Those numbers are dwarfed by recoveries and settlements in other provider sectors. For example, hospitals ponied up $37 million in recoveries in 2018, and skilled nursing facilities made $36 million in settlements and judgments in the same year.

See more stats at https://oig.hhs.gov/oei/reports/oei-09-19-00230.pdf.