So far, April has already seen two home health industry officials sentenced to a combined 15 years of prison time for their roles in multi-million scams, plus a conviction in the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ’s) biggest health care fraud scheme ever. On April 4, DOJ announced the former director of nursing and administration of […]
Category: Fraud
HomeCare.com alum joins LifeMatters Silver Spring, Maryland-based home care provider LifeMatters has hired a new COO. Daniel Gold comes to the position after serving as executive vice president and COO of HomeCare.com, which offers tools and technologies to connect families and caregivers. Gold has worked in different capacities within the post-acute care since the early […]
Despite increased oversight efforts, improper payments under Medicare and Medicaid are costing the federal government billions of dollars, a new report from the watchdog arm of Congress has found. And home health providers appear to be the root of the problem. In fiscal year 2018, improper Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) payments totaled $31.6 billion for all […]
The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) is making good on its long-held promise to ramp up oversight of home- and community-based services, requesting an extra $10 million in its fiscal year 2020 budget to tackle fraud, waste and abuse in those areas. The extra funding — which would increase this portion of OIG’s budget […]
If you operate a home health agency, Laura Long and her colleagues are probably the last people you want to hear from. Long is the Medicare operations lead at AdvanceMed, one of five unified program integrity contractors (UPICs) nationwide hired by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to audit and investigation home health […]
Federal authorities took action against a handful of individuals and companies last month for their roles in multimillion-dollar home health fraud schemes. On Feb. 15, a Michigan woman pleaded guilty for her role as a patient recruiter in a scheme involving about $1.2 million in fraudulent Medicare claims for home health care procured through kickback […]
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) made nearly half a dozen announcements at the end of January regarding Medicare fraud involving home health agencies. Among them: A Miami woman was sentenced to more than four years in prison on Jan. 17 for her role in a $4.66 million health care fraud scheme involving several Florida-based […]
A subsidiary of one of the nation’s largest hospice companies — Curo Health Services — has agreed to pay millions of dollars to settle a federal whistleblower lawsuit claiming that the company submitted Medicare claims that were medically unnecessary or lacked documentation. Curo Health Services was acquired by Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM) and private equity […]
For years, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) has been ramping up efforts to battle Medicare fraud — including in home health and hospice. Now, a new OIG semiannual report is showing the agency’s progress, to the tune of $2.91 billion in expected investigative recoveries for fiscal year 2018. […]
A group of home health aides will receive a $4 million settlement to resolve a suit that claims they weren’t paid all the wages a New York company owed them. After granting preliminary approval in June, a U.S. District judge granted final approval to the class and collective settlement Tuesday. In 2016, plaintiff Allison Hypolite […]