Frontline Hospice Staff Need to Understand New CMS Survey Methods

In case you missed it, Hospice News has launched a new specialty publication for palliative care professionals. You can subscribe to Palliative Care News here: Subscribe today! Ensuring staff are educated around revisions to hospice survey processes will be key to navigating ongoing regulatory changes in the industry. Revisions to hospice surveys have been in the pipeline […]

The Risk of Criminal Charges in Hospice Fraud Cases

Hospice personnel could face criminal charges in instances of suspected fraud, waste and abuse. The regulatory stakes are high for hospice providers when it comes to False Claims Act (FCA) violations, according to Jonathan Porter, partner at the law firm Husch Blackwell. Though the vast majority of FCA cases do not result in criminal charges, […]

Investigating Medicare Hospice Overpayments

As auditing activity by regulators continues to spike, hospices need to know how to conduct internal investigations to identify any potential improper payments. Audits by Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs) have proliferated during the past two years, including Targeted Probe and Educate (TPE) audits, as well as those by Unified Program Integrity Contractors (UPIC), Supplemental Medical […]

Hospices Exploring MSOs Amid Evolving Consolidation Rules

Entering agreements with management service organizations (MSOs) may be an alternate route to joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions for hospices seeking to build scale and sustainability than in today’s regulatory and financial climates. A slew of regulatory moves have taken place in 2023 that can have an impact on future deal-making in the hospice space, […]

2023’s Most Impactful Hospice Regulatory Moves

Program integrity issues that have heated up in the hospice space during the past five years reached a boiling point in 2023. Hospice providers have seen an array of increased regulatory oversight in 2023. That momentum has been fueled by two main concerns among regulators — risks of patient safety and evidence of malfeasance in […]

Hospice CEO, Chief Compliance Officer Collaborations Key to Quality

The lines of communication between hospice leaders and compliance executives need to be open and transparent in today’s regulatory environment. The complexities of hospice regulation alongside increased oversight in the space have led providers to zero in on compliance. A host of new audit activity has cropped up in recent years, as well as ramped […]

Navigating the CMS Hospice Audit Appeal Process

As audits proliferate in the hospice space, providers can benefit from understanding the appeals process. Hospices are increasingly wading through an alphabet soup of auditing activity in the industry. Auditing types anticipated to ramp up in hospice include Targeted Probe and Educate (TPE) audits conducted by Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACS) and others involving Unified Program […]

Hospices Navigate New Standards for Building Joint Ventures

Recent regulatory moves aimed at greater transparency and consistency in the structure of joint venture valuations may impact how hospices approach these partnerships. The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) recently introduced a new rule that will require newly formed joint ventures (JVs) to disclose the net value of each participating asset at the onset of […]

How Emerging Hospice Regulations Could Impact Providers

Increased hospice oversight aimed at curbing fraud in the industry could come with a mixed bag of financial and operational impacts for providers. The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has honed in on hospice program integrity, rolling out a swath of new measures to reduce fraud, waste and abuse in the space. […]

OIG’s Hospice GIP Audit Fueled by Inappropriate Billing; Nearly One-Third of Claims Have Errors

Increased regulatory and clinical oversight is needed to address common billing and documentation errors related to hospice general inpatient care, according to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) Office of the Inspector General (OIG). Inaccurate billing was among the driving forces behind the OIG’s recently announced nationwide audit of general inpatient hospice […]