Although nursing homes appreciate the recent release of $4.9 billion in financial assistance, the bullseye on them continues growing. Troubles that preceded the COVID-19 crisis have gotten worse for facilities caring for high risk seniors. They face scrutiny over death rates from COVID-19, as well as how they will use relief money.… Continue Reading
On April 30, 2020, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) announced new measures to support the healthcare system during the COVID-19 pandemic. These measures build upon past regulatory changes we have discussed elsewhere (see, for example, here and here), and CMS hopes to achieve five objectives with these measures: (1) expand the healthcare … Continue Reading
As the White House looks to soon reopen parts of the United States, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has released its first set of guidelines for healthcare providers in regions that have seen stabilizing COVID-19 trends. The guidelines relax prior CMS recommendations that facilities limit and postpone non-essential care and elective procedures. … Continue Reading
Following up on Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Seema Verma’s statements on Tuesday, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a press release announcing the immediate disbursement of $30 billion to Medicare hospitals and providers starting April 10. These payments have been or are already in the process of being … Continue Reading
On March 28, 2020, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced an expansion of its Accelerated and Advance Payment Program (the Program). The Program is designed to help providers with “significant cash flow problems resulting from…unusual circumstances of the hospital’s operation.” 42 U.S.C. § 1395g (e)(3). Usually deployed during times of natural disasters, … Continue Reading
On March 30, in connection with the national COVID-19 emergency, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) issued waivers (the “Waivers”) for certain provisions of the federal physician self-referral law, commonly referred to as the “Stark Law.” To ensure there will be sufficient capacity to handle the unique challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, CMS … Continue Reading
On March 13, 2020, President Trump declared the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic a state of emergency, invoking section 501(b) of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, 42 U.S.C. 5121-5207 (Stafford Act). On January 31, 2020, Secretary of Health and Human Services (Secretary) Alex M. Azar II declared COVID-19 a public … Continue Reading
The government incentivizes whistleblowers in order to increase healthcare recoveries under the False Claims Act. See our analysis here of how the Act’s qui tam provisions work by Colin Jennings, Marisa Darden, and Ayako Hobbs. … Continue Reading
Once again, healthcare leads other industries for recoveries by the government and whistleblowers under the False Claims Act. Enforcement actions span the entire health care supply chain. See our report here in the Anticorruption blog.… Continue Reading
CMS said it plans to audit risk-adjustment payments that Medicare Advantage (MA) plans received based on having identified additional diagnoses in beneficiary medical chart reviews. CMS’s action was spurred by a recent report from the HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) entitled, “Billions in Estimated Medicare Advantage Payments From Chart Reviews Raise Concerns.” (Click here … Continue Reading
As we discussed last week, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that it will start fixing calendar year 2019 underpayments made to hospitals for outpatient services at off-campus provider-based departments. CMS explained that it will be doing this in response to a court order invalidating CMS’s 30% payment cuts to such off-campus … Continue Reading
Yesterday, in response to a court victory by several hospital associations, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced it will begin fixing calendar year 2019 underpayments made to hospitals for outpatient services at grandfathered off-campus provider-based departments (off-campus PBDs). CMS states it has instructed Medicare contractors to “automatically reprocess” claims paid at the … Continue Reading
On October 9, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released proposed rules (the Proposed Rules) aiming to update the Anti-Kickback Statute (the AKS), Stark Law and Civil Monetary Penalties Law (CMPL) to address today’s value-based and coordinated healthcare environment. The proposals reflect a recognition on HHS’s part that the healthcare landscape of today … Continue Reading
In a ruling on September 17, 2019 by Judge Rosemary M. Collyer, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia vacated portions of a 2018 Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) rule that reduced Medicare payments for clinic-visit services at off-campus hospital outpatient departments (HOPDs). By rulemaking, on January 1, 2019, CMS instituted … Continue Reading
By selecting a more severe Secondary Diagnosis Code for a patient, a physician may increase the reimbursement due from Medicare. If a hospital intentionally changes codes across its patient population, the increased revenue can be substantial. Is that legal? A federal district court in Texas faced this question when a relator filed suit under the … Continue Reading
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has withdrawn a controversial policy, first introduced in 2010, which changes how much a Medicaid disproportionate share hospital (DSH) may receive annually in supplemental DSH payments. CMS took this action in response to several court rulings invalidating the agency’s policy. Despite the agency’s walk-back of its policy, … Continue Reading
On Friday, November 30, 2018, the US Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a proposed rule (Proposed Rule) to revise Medicare Part D (Part D) and Medicare Advantage (MA) regulations to promote health plan negotiation of lower drug prices and to reduce out-of-pocket spending for enrollees. The Proposed Rule contains four areas of … Continue Reading
On October 26, 2018, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) issued a proposed rule that will, among others initiatives, allow CMS to recover higher dollar amounts of improper payments made to Medicare Advantage Organizations. Improper payments are identified through Risk Adjustment Data Validation (“RADV”) audits, which are audits conducted to determine whether the … Continue Reading
On Wednesday, July 11, 2018, House lawmakers again signaled their intent to reform the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) 340B Drug Pricing Program (340B) during an Energy and Commerce (E&C) Subcommittee on Health hearing. Since 2015, both E&C and the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions … Continue Reading
Late last month, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) issued a request for information (“RFI”) seeking input regarding the Medicare physician self-referral law and its implementing regulations (“Stark Law”) and how it may prevent or inhibit care coordination amongst healthcare providers. As part of CMS’s broader “Regulatory Sprint to Coordinated Care” initiative, the … Continue Reading
The Government executed a record nationwide healthcare takedown according to multiple measurements. The enforcement action charged hundreds of medical professionals, across the country, for a variety of frauds that totaled approximately $2 billion.… Continue Reading
On Friday, May 11, 2018, President Trump vowed to fix “the injustice of high drug prices” by announcing the “Blueprint to Lower Drug Prices” (the Blueprint) to address the following challenges: Excessively high drug prices Seniors and government programs overpaying for drugs High out-of-pocket costs for consumers Lack of transparency in drug pricing Free-riding by … Continue Reading
CMS has recently signaled its intention to review the Stark Law and its impact on providers. During a January, 2018 American Hospital Association webinar, CMS Administrator Seema Verma announced the development of an inter-agency group to review the Stark Law in light of provider complaints that the law acts as a barrier to their ability to … Continue Reading
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently announced the launch of a new voluntary bundled payment model called Bundled Payments for Care Improvement Advanced (BPCI Advanced). Under the new BPCI Advanced model, participants can earn additional payment if all expenditures for a beneficiary’s episode of care are under a spending target that factors … Continue Reading
