As many hospices continue to diversify into new business lines, staying abreast of enforcement trends outside of hospice is more important than ever. Home health in particular, is receiving significant government scrutiny. In this episode, Husch Blackwell’s Meg Pekarske talks with Bryan Nowicki and Erin Burns about a new round of home health audits being
Hospice Audit Series
Audits are a fact of life for hospices—it’s not a matter of “if” a hospice will be audited, but “when.” The alphabet soup of audits has expanded, from UPICs to SMRCs, CPIs, TPEs and more. With the hospice carve-in to Medicare Advantage, MAO audits will join the list. The recent pause in audits as a result of the COVID pandemic hints at increased activity as the pandemic wanes. In this series, Meg Pekarske and Bryan Nowicki of Husch Blackwell’s Hospice Audit team deconstruct the most recent developments in hospice audits, providing insight and guidance on the why, when and how of audits and—most importantly—what hospices can do about it.
The Office of Inspector General (OIG) recently announced that its 2022 work plan for hospices will include a nationwide review of hospice beneficiary eligibility. In this episode, Husch Blackwell’s Meg Pekarske and Bryan Nowicki discuss what led to this latest effort by the OIG, what hospices can expect and what they should do. Listen today:
Hospices’ unique regulatory and business environment impacts how they contract with and relate to other private entities. In this episode, we discuss the many kinds of hospice-related contracts and contract-dispute matters they have worked on, and how their clients benefitted from their in-depth knowledge of hospices. Tune at: https://bit.ly/3JRIObe
Hospices and the False Claims Act Series
The False Claims Act (FCA) is the government’s most serious weapon to combat fraud in the healthcare community, and hospices are increasingly the target of FCA investigations and lawsuits. The United States Supreme Court is, for the first time, considering FCA cases involving hospices and certifications of terminal
In Part II of our two-part series on ALJ hearings, Husch Blackwell’s Meg Pekarske unpacks strategies for winning with colleagues Bryan Nowicki, Emily Solum and Erin Burns. They explore what it means to be well-prepared and who should be on your team. They also share tips for overcoming the most common hurdles to
In this third episode of the Husch Blackwell Hospice Team’s “Hospice and the False Claims Act” series, Meg Pekarske, Bryan Nowicki, Jody Rudman and Brian Flood discuss the process and path of a False Claims Act (FCA) lawsuit. FCA cases are a test of endurance as much as they
In this episode, Husch Blackwell’s Meg Pekarske and Bryan Nowicki discuss the new wave of CMS Center for Program Integrity (CPI) audits that have been issued during the past couple weeks. These CPI audits remain focused on long length of stay patients and typically involve hundreds of claims valued at over $1 million. As Meg
In today’s episode of Hospice Insights: The Law and Beyond, Husch Blackwell’s Meg Pekarske is joined by colleagues Bryan Nowicki and Erin Burns to discuss the recent denial of physician visits. Over the last several months, a number of auditors have begun questioning the medical necessity of billed physician visits, claiming the physician services were
