Photo of Zaina Niles

Zaina is part of the firm’s Healthcare Regulatory & Compliance Counseling​ ​team, which advises a wide range of clients on ​how to mitigate risk and ensure compliance​ in the ever-changing healthcare field. In addition, she works alongside the firm’s Hospice & Palliative Care Team to guide hospice providers ​through each stage of the audit and appeal process.

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.