Part B Insider (Multispecialty) Coding Alert

Don't forget to check the HHS Office of Inspector General's exclusion list when you hire new employees, or you could wind up in the same expensive boat as American Senior Communities in Indianapolis.

The nursing and rehabilitative care provider ponied up $376,000 in civil money penalties to the OIG for employing seven excluded individuals, the OIG says in a release.

ASC might have gotten off lighter if it had discovered and reported the problem itself. "Providers self-disclosing such violations will ultimately pay lower settlement amounts," Lewis Morris, chief counsel to the OIG, says in a release. "But in cases initiated by the government -- such as this one -- providers will, as a matter of course, be required to pay more to resolve the matter."

Remember contractors: "Providers need to check their employees and contractors on the OIG excluded list," urges consultant Tom Boyd with Rohnert Park, Calif.-based Boyd & Nicholas. The exclusions list applies to contractors too, the OIG reminds providers.