Hospice providers are navigating a minefield in today’s regulatory environment to avoid getting caught up in the mix of fraudulent activity in the space. The current state of hospice regulations has providers walking compliance tightropes, according to Patrick Harrison, senior director of regulatory and compliance at the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO). Fraud, […]
Category: Regulation
Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon) is drafting a landmark bill that, if enacted, would represent the most significant reforms to date for hospice payment and oversight. Blumenauer announced the bill, the Hospice Care Accountability, Reform, and Enforcement (Hospice CARE) Act, on Thursday at the Hospice News Elevate conference in Washington D.C. Though the bill language is […]
Rep. Beth Van Duyne, (R-Texas) has emerged as one of Washington’s most vocal advocates for hospice providers in Congress. Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2020, Van Duyne is a member of the influential Ways and Means Committee, overseeing Medicare, Social Security and tax policies among other programs. Van Duyne was among a […]
Federal regulators should increase scrutiny of private equity activity in the hospice space, according to the National Partnership for Healthcare and Hospice Innovation (NPHI). NPHI is a membership organization comprising more than 100 nonprofit, community-integrated hospice and palliative care providers from 38 states and the District of Columbia. The organization recently submitted comments in response to a […]
The FBI has arrested five people in connection with a $15 million hospice fraud and money laundering scheme. The arrests took place in California, a state that has been rife with hospice fraud in recent years, along with Arizona, Texas and Nevada. Petros Fichidzhyan, Juan Carlos Esparza and Karpis Srapyan allegedly owned and operated a […]
The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has updated its guidance on the recently implemented hospice certifying physician Medicare enrollment requirement. The revisions were fueled by mounting concerns that the requirement posed potential compliance issues. The requirement stipulated that physicians who certify hospice services must enroll in or opt out of Medicare by […]
A slew of fraudulent hospices in California are dodging consequences by shuffling patients around between provider numbers. That’s according to multiple sources who spoke with Hospice News, expressing their concerns about patterns of fraud continuing even as government regulators crack down on the sector. Since 2021, numerous media and government reports have emerged of unethical […]
Hospice industry organizations have voiced support for proposed updates to the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) surveys, but raised questions on the implementation timeline. The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) included the updates in its proposed hospice payment rule for 2025. If finalized as written, the changes would take […]
The senior care advocacy group LeadingAge has praised the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) inquiries into high-acuity palliative care, but expressed concern over reimbursement and staffing issues. The agency’s 2025 proposed hospice rule featured a series of requests for information (RFI) on issues like health equity, social determinants of health and future […]
Legislators recently proposed to extend the telehealth flexibilities temporarily granted during the pandemic. These efforts come at a time when telehealth utilization is making waves in hospice staff and patient engagement, as well as operational efficiency and care coordination. Hospices have leveraged telehealth to a greater extent in recent years, with some seeing a range […]