Articles and Blogs

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) implemented changes to Internet-based PECOS to allow providers easier access to information. The following enhancements are now available: READ MORE

Need a quick reference to find specific contacts at Medicare organizations that service your state? The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently published an interactive Provider Compliance Group Map. Should you have any questions, please contact: Todd Selby at 317.977.1440 or tselby@wp.hallrender.com; Brian Jent at 317.977.1402 or bjent@wp.hallrender.com; or David Bufford at 502.568.9368 or dbufford@wp.hallrender.com, or your regular... READ MORE

Data collected and analyzed by the Office of Inspector General (OIG) since 2010, indicate that home health agencies (HHAs) are predisposed to commit Medicare fraud, waste and abuse. In 2010, Medicare inappropriately paid $5 million for erroneous claims submitted by HHAs. With one in four claims being suspect, the OIG established six (6) criteria... READ MORE

This afternoon, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a notice updating the Medicare Hospice Wage Index with an estimated 0.9% increase in payments for FY 2013. The payment increase is the net result of a 1.6 percent increase in the hospital market basket update, which is offset by a 0.7 percentage point decrease... READ MORE

Since 2005, a group of associations, such as LeadingAge, AHCA, AMDA, and many others, has hosted an annual summit to discuss the information technology (IT) issues long term care and post acute care providers face.  The group, known as the Long Term and Post Acute Care (LTPAC)  Collaborative, publishes a Road Map for LTPAC providers to... READ MORE

In an on-going push to regulate the use of antipsychotic medications in nursing facilities, another piece of legislation has failed to pass Congress.  The Senate did not pass a proposed regulation that would have standardized protocols for obtaining informed consent before administering antipsychotics for off-label use.   READ MORE

Since 2003, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has asked Americans to detail how their time was spent during the last 24 hours.  Derived from a sample of 12,500 respondents, the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) details the average number of minutes spent daily in traffic, on the phone, shopping, cooking, etc.  Only last year was... READ MORE

As part of their on-going video series, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) has posted a video on their self-disclosure protocols. Self-disclosure is a key element of an effective compliance program, and can possibly reduce any civil monetary penalties (CMPs) associated with a violation or instance of noncompliance. The OIG has provided many videos... READ MORE

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has published a transmittal detailing changes for coding hospice discharges, which will provide greater clarity as to why the patient has been discharged from hospice care.   READ MORE

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has responded to criticism detailing how Medicare contractors present hospice service charges in the Medicare Summary Notice (MSN) to beneficiaries.  In recent years, CMS has added new reporting requirements for visit data on hospice claims.  This resulted in an expansion of the information of the claim record to better understand... READ MORE