If your practice provides enteral nutrition, you could be in for a nasty cut. The HHS Office of Inspector General wants deep cuts to payments for category I enteral nutrition formulas.
The OIG found in a Feb. 2 inspection report that Medicare paid 70 to 115 percent more for enteral nutrition than suppliers. Now the OIG wants the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to use its "inherent reasonableness" authority to cut nutrition payments up to 15 percent per year. CMS says procedures for using that authority are still being hashed out.