50 Home Health Workers Go Without Pay in North Carolina

About 50 home home health workers at an agency in North Carolina are working without compensation because the agency’s owner doesn’t have the cash to pay them. Devon Best, the owner of Hickory, North Carolina-based Best Care Home Health Services, partly blames Medicaid for the payment delay. Speaking with the local ABC television affiliate in […]

Home Care Owners Found Guilty in $80 Million Fraud Scheme

The owners of a Washington, D.C., home care agency have been found guilty of bilking the District of Columbia Medicaid program of more than $80 million. On Nov. 12, a jury found Florence Bikundi, 52, and her husband Michael Bikundi, 63, guilty of a slew of charges, including health care fraud, Medicaid fraud, money laundering […]

Wage Rule Enforcement Begins, Home Care Industry Holds Breath

The Department of Labor could officially begin enforcement of its rule guaranteeing overtime and minimum wage protections for about 2 million home care workers on Friday, but several significant question marks persist when it comes to implementation. From Nov. 12 to the end of the year, the DOL “will exercise prosecutorial discretion in determining whether […]

Medicaid Crisis Brewing Over Home Care Wage Rule

Several state Medicaid programs are unprepared to pay home health workers overtime, minimum wage or traveling expenses under new regulations—though some states, like Kansas, have been more vocal about the issue than others. A U.S. Department of Labor rule that extends overtime and minimum wage protections to about 2 million home health workers took effect Oct. 13. This […]

WSJ: Why Aging in Place Isn’t All It’s Cracked Up to Be

Aging in place is proving difficult in areas where the population is getting older, houses are in disrepair, supportive services are scarce and younger people who can help have moved away, according to a recent article published in The Wall Street Journal. The article discusses how the northeastern United States — which has the oldest median age […]

New Jersey Pushed to Return $32 Million in Home Health Payments

The New Jersey Department of Human Services improperly claimed more than $32 million in Medicaid payments for home health services that didn’t meet federal or state requirements, according to a recently released report from the U.S. Office of Inspector General. Of 100 randomly reviewed claims for the state’s personal care services program submitted from August […]

New York Home Health Agency to Pay $6 Million Medicaid Fraud Settlement

Empire State Home Care Services, a New York-based home care agency, has agreed to a $6 million settlement following a Medicaid billing audit, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced Monday. The audit revealed Empire improperly billed Medicaid by reporting salaries and benefits of administrative personnel under direct care cost centers between 2002 and 2005 […]

Editor’s Picks: NAHC on Face-to-Face Lawsuit, Bundled Payment Risk

In case you missed them, here are the top headlines grabbing readers’ attention this week, plus some other notable stories from around the web that caught our eye here at HHCN: Most Read NAHC President Optimistic About Face-to-Face Ruling—President of the National Association for Home Care & Hospice, Val J. Halamandaris, told Home Health Care […]

Investigators Dismantle $60 Million Home Health, Pharmacy Fraud Ring

Federal investigators announced Friday the take down of a massive health care fraud scheme that involved more than $60 million of improper billing to Medicare and Medicaid and the convictions of 39 defendants in Michigan. Propagated by ringleader Babubhai Patel, 51, of Canton, Mich., the scheme involved 26 pharmacies, nine doctors and several home health […]