Category Archives: Long Term Care Facilities
Regulatory Fright: Audits Citing Harm, Abuse, Neglect, or Exploitation
There is little more daunting than the Division of Health Services Regulation (“DHSR”) – or whatever acronym is used in your State – slapping penalties on long term care facilities, nursing homes, and other residential facilities, such as residential homes housing handicapped recipients, mentally ill recipients, or substance abuse consumers. Many of these penalties are immediate and can easily put a facility out of business and a resident without a home. DHSR falls under the umbrella of DHHS, the “single State entity” that manages Medicaid in each respective State. DHSR may be a different acronym in your State, but the essence will be the same.
The primary difference between adult care homes and nursing homes is as follows:
“Adult Care Homes” provide care and assistance to people with problems carrying out activities of daily living and supervision to people with cognitive impairments whose decisions, if made independently, may jeopardize the safety or well-being of themselves or others and therefore require supervision. Medication in an adult care home may be administered by designated, trained staff. Smaller adult care homes that provide care to two to six unrelated residents are commonly called family care homes.
“Nursing Homes” are for people who need chronic or rehabilitative care, who, on admission are not acutely ill and who do not usually require special facilities such as an operating room, X-ray facilities, laboratory facilities, and obstetrical facilities. A “nursing home” provides care for people who have remedial ailments or other ailments, for which medical and nursing care are indicated; who, however, are not sick enough to require general hospital care. Nursing care is their primary need, but they will require continuing medical supervision.
Regarding Violations & Penalties in Adult Care Homes
Pursuant to G.S. 131-D-34 (a), the Department shall impose an administrative penalty in accordance with provisions of the Article on any facility which is found to be in violation of requirements of G.S. 131D-21 or applicable State and federal laws and regulations. Citations for violations shall be classified and penalties assessed according to the nature of the violation.
Type A1 and A2 Violations & Penalties: A monetary penalty fine may be imposed when a “Type A1” or “Type A2” violation has occurred.
- “Type A1 Violation” means a violation by a facility of applicable laws and regulations governing a facility which results in death or serious physical harm, abuse, neglect, or exploitation of a resident.
- “Type A2 Violation” means a violation by a facility of applicable laws and regulations governing the licensure of a facility which results in substantial risk that death or serious physical harm, abuse, neglect, or exploitation will occur.
- For family care homes (licensed for two to six beds), the penalty amount may range from $500.00 to $10,000 for each Type A violation.
- For adult care homes (licensed for seven beds or more), the penalty amount may range from $2000.00 to $20,000 for each Type A violation.
Examples of a Type A1 violation may include the following:
- The facility failed to provide supervision to a confused resident who exhibited wandering and exit seeking behaviors resulting in the resident leaving the facility unsupervised and without the knowledge of the facility’s staff. The resident was hit by a car and sustained multiple injuries causing death.
- The facility failed to administer an antibiotic medication for 7 days as ordered for a resident discharged from the hospital with diagnoses including pneumonia. The resident required a subsequent 11-day hospitalization for diagnoses including respiratory failure and an infection in the bloodstream.
Examples of a Type A2 violation may include the following:
- The facility failed to send a resident to the hospital for evaluation after the resident drank approximately 24 ounces of hand sanitizer on one occasion; drank approximately 8 ounces of body wash and ate an unknown amount of solid deodorant on a second occasion; and failed to notify the resident’s primary care provider of the resident drinking non-consumable substances on more than one occasion which placed the resident at substantial risk of serious physical harm and neglect.
- A resident was administered medications that belonged to another resident. The medications administered had the strong potential of adverse side effects. The resident required emergent evaluation and treatment in the emergency department of the local hospital which placed the resident at substantial risk of serious physical harm.
Unabated Violations and Penalties:
If a facility has failed to correct any violation within the specified date of correction (30 days for Type A violations; 45 days for Type B violations), these are “unabated violations.” Additional penalty fines may be imposed for unabated violations.
Unabated Type A1 and A2 Violations & Penalties:
When a facility has failed to correct a “Type A1” or “Type A2” violation within 30 days, a monetary penalty fine may be imposed in the amount of up to $1,000 for each day that the Type A1 or Type A2 violation continued to occur beyond the date specified for correction.
The Department has legal authority to impose a monetary fine for:
- The inspection in which the Type A1 or Type A2 violation was first identified and
- Additional monetary penalty fines as a result of each inspection in which the unabated Type A1 violation or unabated Type A2 violation continued to occur beyond the specified date of correction
Unabated Type B Violations & Penalties:
Another unabated violation that could result in the imposition of penalty fines is a “Type B” violation that has not been corrected by the facility within the specified correction date (45 days per regulatory authority), known as an Unabated B violation.
- A “Type B” violation means a violation by a facility of applicable laws and regulations governing a facility which is detrimental to the health, safety, or welfare of any resident, but which does not result in substantial risk that death or serious physical harm, abuse, neglect, or exploitation will occur.
- The range of the fine for an Unabated “Type B” violation that was not corrected is up to $400.00 for each day that the violation continues beyond the date specified for correction.
- Additional penalty fines may be imposed as a result of each inspection in which the unabated Type B violation continued to occur beyond the specified date of correction.
Examples of Unabated Type B violations may include the following:
- Several residents have orders to receive pain medications every evening but on one evening, staff forget to give the residents the ordered pain medications. One resident suffers from shoulder pain and could not sleep from the missed dose. Subsequent doses are given as ordered. The facility is cited a Type B violation for the non-compliance and on a follow-up visit, additional medication errors are noted; therefore, the facility is fined up to $400/day until compliance with medication administration is determined, which must be verified by another follow-up inspection.
- The facility’s pest management program is not effective, and roaches are noted in a couple of the residents’ rooms on one out of two halls in the facility. The facility is cited a Type B violation for the non-compliance and on a follow-up visit, additional roaches and insects are noted; therefore, the facility is fined up to $400/day until compliance with pest management is determined, which must be verified by another follow-up inspection.
The Department will determine whether each violation has been corrected.
Pursuant to Chapter 150B and N.C. Gen. Stat. § 131D-34(e), adult care homes have the legal right to appeal the imposition of a penalty fine by filing a petition for contested case within 30 days after the Department mails a notice of the penalty imposition decision to a Licensee.
Once a penalty has been imposed, payment is due within 60 days unless an appeal is timely filed at the at the Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH).
If a penalty is appealed, it will go to a hearing at the Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH). Alternatively, the Department and the Licensee may agree to resolve the penalty by executing a settlement agreement.
I emphasize, if you disagree with the sanction and/or the accusation, APPEAL. I have been successful in eliminating severe penalties that a residential home, nursing home, or adult care homes by arguing at the OAH. Just remember, DHSR can accuse anything of happening to constitute “abuse or neglect” of a consumer. But DHSR must prove it to a Judge!
Nursing Homes Face Higher Scrutiny and Increased Penalties
Some nursing homes are facing tougher penalties, including the loss of federal funding. In an effort to increase quality of care in nursing homes, the Biden administration implemented revisions to the Special Focus Facility (“SFF”) program, which targets the “worst” nursing homes in each State. Nursing homes are selected for the program by the “single State agency” using a point system based on the number and severity of deficiencies cited during their past 3 inspections.
CMS released a revised SFF Program policy memo QS0-23-01-NH and these revisions are meant to increase: (A) the requirements for “graduation” of the SFF program; and (B) the enforcement for facilities that do not demonstrate improvement. A high-level overview of key changes made in the revised memo are as follows:
- Staffing levels is a consideration for SFF selection: CMS has directed states to consider a facility’s staffing level when selecting facilities for the SFF program. CMS recommends if a State is considering two candidates with a similar compliance history, it should select the facility with lower staffing ratios/rating as the SFF.
- Criteria for Graduation of the Program Escalated: CMS has added a threshold that prevents a facility from exiting based on the total number of deficiencies cited. To graduate from the program, facilities must complete two consecutive standard health surveys, with no intervening complaint, LSC, or EP surveys with 13 or more total deficiencies, or any deficiencies cited at scope and severity of “F” or higher.
- Involuntary Termination Enforced: SFFs with deficiencies cited at immediate Jeopardy (“IJ”) on any two surveys (standard health, complaint, LSC, or EP) while in the SFF program, will now be considered for discretionary termination.
- Enforcement Actions Increased: CMS will impose immediate sanctions on an SFF that fails to achieve and maintain significant improvement in correcting deficiencies on the first and each subsequent standard health, complaint and LSC/EP survey after a facility becomes an SFF. Enforcement sanctions will be of increasing severity for SFFs demonstrating continued noncompliance and failure to demonstrate good faith efforts to improve performance.
- Sustainable Improvements Incentivized: CMS will closely monitor graduates from the SFF program for a period of three years to ensure improvements are sustained. For SFFs that graduate but continue to demonstrate poor compliance identified on any survey (e.g., actual harm, substandard quality of care, or IJ deficiencies), CMS may use its authority to impose enhanced enforcement options, up to, and including discretionary termination from the Medicare and/or Medicaid programs.
It is imperative to note that your past alleged violations will work against you. This means that if you are cited with a deficiency, it is of the utmost importance, if you disagree with the assessment, to appeal the alleged deficiency. If you merely pay the penalty and roll over like an old dog, your lack of appealing can aid toward your demise. You are basically being held to a giant, bell curve against the other nursing homes in your State.
Once in the SFF program, nursing homes are inspected at least every six months rather than annually. State inspectors apply progressive enforcement—penalties, fines, withholding of payments—until the facilities significantly improve or are terminated from Medicaid and/or Medicare.
Nationally, 88 nursing homes participate in the SFF program, about 0.5% of all nursing homes. It is mandatory if chosen.
The facilities with the most points in a state then become candidates for the SFF program. The number of nursing homes on the candidate list is based on five candidates for each SFF slot, with a minimum candidate pool of five nursing homes and a maximum of 30 per State. State Agencies (“SAs”) use this list to select nursing homes to fill the SFF slot(s) in their State. Additionally, since a facility’s staffing (staffing levels and turnover) is very important to residents’ care, CMS recommends that SAs consider a facility’s staffing information when selecting SFFs from the SFF candidate list. See the list of current candidates in Table D, current as of December 7, 2022. For example, NC has 10 facilities on the proposed list for participation in the SFF program. Each State is allotted a number of SFFs the State may allot. See below.
Once a State selects a facility as an SFF, the SA, on CMS’s behalf, conducts a full, onsite inspection of all Medicare health and safety requirements every six months, and recommends progressive enforcement (e.g., civil money penalty, denial of Medicare payment, etc.) until the nursing home either: (1) graduates from the SFF program; or (2) is terminated from the Medicare and/or Medicaid program(s). While in the SFF program, CMS expects facilities to take meaningful actions to address the underlying and systemic issues leading to poor quality.
Once an SFF graduates or is terminated, each SA then selects a new SFF from a monthly list of candidates. CMS also informs candidate nursing homes of their inclusion on the SFF candidate list in the monthly preview of the Five-Star Quality Rating System. The facility will graduate from the SFF program once it has had two consecutive standard health surveys with 12 or fewer deficiencies cited at S/S of “E” or less on each survey (these surveys must have occurred after the facility has been selected as an SFF). To avoid situations where a facility remains an SFF for a prolonged period of time, CMS is establishing criteria that could result in the facility’s termination from the Medicare and/or Medicaid programs. SFFs with deficiencies cited at Immediate Jeopardy on any two surveys while in the SFF program, will be considered for discretionary termination.
While the initial SFF designation is not appealable, the facility does have some appeal rights. Federal regulations allow for dispute resolution and to appeal a finding of noncompliance determined under an SFF survey that results in an enforcement remedy.
If you find yourself on the SFF list, you must hire a lawyer with expertise. Your lawyer should be able to help you “graduate” from the SFF list without termination or closure. Your lawyer can help negotiate Systems Improvement Agreements (“SIAs”) with SAs and CMS to provide additional time for nursing homes to improve their internal systems and the quality of care they provide.
Are UTIs Preventable? OIG Says Yes and CMS Will Audit!
I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving and are now moving toward the Christmas or Hanukkah holiday. As I discussed last week, CMS and its contracted auditors are turning their watchdog eyes toward nursing homes, critical access hospitals (“CAHs”), and acute care hospitals (“ACHs”). You can hear more on this topic on Thursday, December 8th at 1:30 when I present the RACMonitor webinar, “Warning for Acute Care Hospitals: You Are a Target for Overpayment Audits.”
October 2022, OIG published a new audit project entitled, “Potentially Preventable Hospitalizations of Medicare-Eligible Skilled Nursing Facility Residents.”
Residents of nursing homes and long-term care facilities are frequently transferred to an Emergency Department as an inpatient when they need acute medical care. A proportion of these transfers may be considered inappropriate and may be avoidable, says OIG.
OIG identified nursing facilities with high rates of Medicaid resident transfers to hospitals for urinary tract infections (“UTIs”). OIG describes UTIs as being “often preventable and treatable in the nursing facility setting without requiring hospitalization.” A 2019 OIG audit found that nursing facilities often did not provide UTI detection and prevention services in accordance with resident’s individualized plan of care, which increases the chances for infection and hospitalization. Each resident should have their own prevention policy for whatever they are prone to get. My Grandma, for example, is prone to UTIs, so her personal POC should have prevention measures for trying to avoid contracting a UTI, such as drinking cranberry juice and routine cleansing. In addition to UTIs, OIG noted that previous CMS studies found that five conditions were related to 78% of the resident transfers to hospitals: pneumonia, congestive heart failure, UTIs, dehydration, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease/asthma. OIG added a sixth condition citing that sepsis is considered a preventable condition when the underlying cause of sepsis is preventable. In my humble opinion, the only condition listed as preventable that is actually preventable is dehydration.
OIG’s new audit project involved a review of Medicare and Medicaid claims related to inpatient hospitalizations of nursing home residents with any of the six conditions noted previously. The audit will focus on whether the nursing homes being audited provided services to residents in accordance with the residents’ care plans and related professional standards (or whether the nursing homes caused preventable inpatient admissions due to non-compliance with care plans and professional standards).
What can you do to prepare for these upcoming audits? Review your facilities’ policies, procedures, and practices germane to the identification of the 6 conditions OIG flagged as preventable. Ensure that your policies and procedures lay out definitive steps to prevent or try to prevent these afflictions. Educate and train your staff of detection, prevention, treatment, and care planning related to the six conditions. Collect and analyze data of trends of frequency and cause of inpatient hospitalizations and determine whether these inpatient hospitalizations could have been prevented and how.
In summary, be prepared for audits of inpatient hospitalizations with explanations of attempted prevention. You cannot prevent all afflictions, but you can have policies in place to try. As always, it’s the thought that counts, as long as, it’s written down.
Warning for Acute Care Hospitals: You’re a Target for Overpayment Audits
Today I want to talk about upcoming Medicare audits targeted toward Acute Care Hospitals.
In September 2022, OIG reported that “Medicare Part B Overpaid Critical Access Hospitals and Docs for Same Services.” OIG Reports are blinking signs that flash the future Medicare audits to come. This is a brief blog so be sure to tune in on December 8th for the RACMonitor webinar: Warning for Acute Care Hospitals: You’re a Target for Overpayment Audits. I will be presenting on this topic in much more depth. It is a 60-minute webinar.
For OIG’s report regarding the ACHs, OIG audited 40,026 Medicare Part B claims, with half submitted by critical access hospitals and the rest submitted by health care practitioners for the same services provided to beneficiaries on the same dates of service (“DOS”). OIG studied claims from March 1, 2018, to Feb. 28, 2021, and found almost 100% noncompliance, which constituted almost $1million in overpayments to providers.
According to the OIG Report, CMS didn’t have a system to edit claims to prevent and detect any duplicate claims, as in the services billed by an acute hospital and by a physician elsewhere. Even if the physician reassigned his/her rights to reimbursement to the ACH.
As you know, a critical access hospital cannot bill Part B for any outpatient services delivered by a health care practitioner unless that provider reassigns the claim to the facility, which then bills Part B. However, OIG’s audit found that providers billed and got reimbursed for services they did perform but reassigned their billing rights to the critical access hospital.
The question is – why did the physicians get reimbursed even if they assigned their rights to reimbursement away? At some point, CMS needs to take responsibility as to the lack having a system to catch these alleged overpayments. If the physicians were reimbursed and had no reason to know that they were getting reimbursed for services that they assigned to an ACH, there is an equitable argument that CMS cannot take back money based on its own error and no intent by the physician.
On a different note, I wanted to give a shout out to ASMAC, which is the American Society of Medical Association Counsel; Attorneys Advocating for America’s Physicians. It is comprised of general counsels (GCs) of health care entities and presidents of State Medical Societies. ASMAC’s topics at conferences are cutting-edge in our industry of defending health care providers, interesting, and on-point by experts in the fields. I was to present there last week in Hawaii on extrapolations in Medicare and Medicaid provider audits. Thankfully, all their conferences are not in Hawaii; that is too far of a trip for someone on the East Coast. But you should look into the association, if ASMAC sounds like it would benefit you or you could benefit them, join.
The Catastrophic Effect of Natural Disasters on Medicare Audits
When natural disasters strike, Medicare and Medicaid audits become less important, and human safety becomes most important. During Hurricane Ian, 16 hospitals were evacuated in Florida alone. Hospitals and long-term care facilities were without water.
Approximately, 8,000 patients were evacuated from 47 nursing homes and 115 assisted living facilities. Seventy-eight nursing homes lost power and all had to implement emergency plans involving generator power. Did the providers continue to bill during this time? If so, could regulations be followed in the midst of a pandemic.
These natural disasters impact future Medicare and Medicaid audits. Obviously, during natural disasters a hospital may not be able to maintain the two-midnight rule or determine whether a patient is in observation status or in-patient. You may be surprised to hear that there are no automatic audit exceptions during a disaster.
The general rule, which has exceptions, is a 30-day extension for records requests. Broadly speaking, Medicare fee-for-service has three sets of potential temporary adjustments that can be made to address an emergency or disaster situation. These include:
- Applying flexibilities that are already available under normal business rules. This is on an individual basis;
- Waiver or modification of policy or procedural norms by CMS; and
- Waiver or modification of certain Medicare requirements pursuant to waiver authority under § 1135 of the Social Security Act. This waiver authority can be invoked by the Secretary of the DHHS in certain circumstances.
These waivers are not automatic.
Section 1135 of the Social Security Act authorizes the Secretary DHHS to waive or modify certain Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, and HIPAA requirements. Two prerequisites must be met before the Secretary may invoke the § 1135 waiver authority. First, the President must have declared an emergency or disaster, and the Secretary must have declared a Public Health Emergency (PHE).
Waivers authorized by the statute apply to Medicare in the context of the following requirements:
- conditions of participation or other certification requirements applicable to providers;
- licensure requirements applicable to physicians and other health professionals;
- sanctions for violations of certain emergency medical standards under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA)
- sanctions relating to physician self-referral limitations (Stark)
- performance deadlines and timetables (modifiable only; not waivable); and
- certain payment limitations under the Medicare Advantage program.
Following a disaster, such as Ian, there is no standing authority for CMS to provide special emergency/disaster relief funding following an emergency or disaster in order to compensate providers for lost reimbursement. Congress may appropriate disaster-specific special funding for such; but absent such special appropriation, Medicare does not provide funding for financial losses.
In the context of Medicare audits, providers can obtain extensions to audit requests. Audits will only be suspended on a case-by-case basis, which means it is a subjective standard. Natural disasters are awful, and we probably need more comprehensive audit exceptions.
Licensure Penalties, Plans of Corrections, and Summary Suspensions, Oh My!!
Most of you know that I also appear on RACMonitor every Monday morning at 10:00am eastern. I present a 3-minute segment on RACMonitor, which is a national, syndicated podcast that focuses on RAC audits and the casualties they leave in their wakes. I am joined on that podcast with nation Medicare and Medicaid experts, such as Dr. Ronald Hirsh, health care attorneys David Glaser and me, Tiffany Ferguson, who speaks on the social determinants of health and Matthew Albright, who presents on legislative matters. Other experts join in a rotating fashion, such as Mary Inman, a whistleblower attorney who resides in London, England, Ed Roche, an attorney and statistical wizard who debunks extrapolations, and it is hosted by my friend and producer, Chuck Buck and Clark Anthony and Chyann and others….
But there are other audits that wield similar dire results: OTHER THAN RAC, TPE, MAC, and ZPICs. Licensure audits, for example, can cause monetary penalties, plans of corrections, or even summary suspensions…OH MY!!! (A reference to The Wizard of Oz, obviously).
For hospitals and other health facilities, the licensure laws typically cover issues such as professional and non-professional staffing; physical plant requirements; required clinical services; administrative capabilities; and a vast array of other requirements. In most states, in addition to hospital licensure, full-service hospitals require other licenses and permits, such as laboratory permits, permits relating to hazardous wastes, food service permits, and transportation licenses for hospital-affiliated ambulances. Other residential healthcare facilities, such as nursing homes or behavioral health homes, are typically subject to similar requirements.
Penalties are brandished once audits ensue. Licensure audits do not possess the same financial incentives as RAC audits. In NC the entity that conducts licensure audits is DHSR, the Department of Health Service Regulation. DHSR is still under the umbrella of DHHS, which is the single state entity charged with managing Medicaid. Every State has a DHHS although it may be named something else. In New Mexico, the single state entity is called HSD or Health Services Department. In CA, the single state entity is called DHCS or Department of Health Care Services.
The entity in your State that conducts licensure audits will be under the umbrella of your State’s single State entity that manages Medicaid.
Penalties can be severe.
Summary suspensions occur in all 50 States. A summary suspension is an action in administrative law in which a judge suspends a provider’s license upon the receipt of allegations and prior to a full hearing on the matter. In general, the summary suspension is based on a finding that the suspension is necessary, given the allegations, to protect safety or public health. The summary suspension is a temporary, emergency ruling pending a full hearing on the allegations. For example, in Washington State WAC 170-03-0300(1)(a), permits summary suspension of a child care license by the Department where “conditions in the licensed facility constitute an imminent danger to a child or children in care.”
Imminent dangers can be alleged in hospitals, nursing homes, or residential facilities. I say “alleged” because an allegation is all it takes for a summary suspension to be bestowed. Allegations, unfortunately, must be defended.
Appeal! Appeal! Appeal! Be like Dorothy and get to the Wizard of Oz – no matter what, even if she has to defeat the Wicked Witch of the West!
Last year I had two residential facilities receive summary suspensions at the same time. What do you do if your facility receives a summary suspension?
PANIC.
Kidding. Do not panic. Contact your Medicaid attorney immediately.
Ultimately, we went to trial and defended these two facilities successfully.
A Decline in Home Health and Long Term Care Providers
Hello and Happy birthday Medicare and Medicaid. You are now 56 years old. Medicaid was never supposed to be long-lasting or a primary insurance that it has become. Over 81 million citizens rely on Medicaid. President Lyndon Johnson signed both landmark social programs into law on July 30, 1965.
I have two newsflashes to discuss today. (1) Nursing homes will be targeted by audits because few surveys occurred during COVID, according to a newly published OIG Report; and (2) long-term care facilities, in general, are decreasing in number while the need escalates.
First, the OIG, Addendum to OEI-01-20-00430, published July 2021, “States’ Backlogs of Standard Surveys of Nursing Homes Grew Substantially During the COVID-19 Pandemic,” which is an audit of a mass number of nursing homes across the country.
Nationally, 71 percent of nursing homes (10,913 of 15,295) had gone at least 16 months without a standard survey as of May 31, 2021. By State, the backlogs for standard surveys ranged from 22 percent to 96 percent of nursing homes. Expect a surge of standard audits.
Insert chart.
Second, enrollment in fee-for-service (FFS) Medicare and Medicaid has skyrocketed in recent years, especially due to COVID and longer life-expectancies. This equates to more consumers. It means a need for more providers willing to accept the low reimbursement rates offered by Medicare and Medicaid. More providers plus more consumers equals more RAC and MAC audits. Medicare remains the nation’s largest single purchaser of health care, with home health care services accounting for a decent chunk of spending. Of the $3.2 trillion spent on personal health care in 2019, Medicare accounted for 23% — or $743 billion — of that total.
There were 11,456 home health agencies operating in 2020. That total is down slightly compared to the 11,571 agencies operating in 2019. The number of home health agencies has actually been declining since 2013. Before that, the industry had experienced several years of substantial growth in terms of new agencies opening. The decline in agencies has been most concentrated in Texas and Florida. The number of skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) is also decreasing, though not quite as fast.
My humble opinion? The government needs to be more aware of how aggressive Medicare and Medicaid auditors are. How overzealous. Congress needs to pass legislation to protect the providers who accept Medicare and Medicaid. Like the military, we should be saying, “thank you for your service.”
OIG Opens Fire on Telehealth Claims during COVID
They’re here….
The audits of telehealth during COVID. OIG is conducting, at least, seven (7) nationwide audits of providers specific to telemedicine. These audits will review remote patient monitoring, virtual check-ins, and e-visits. In 2018, OIG issued a report regarding a 31% error rate of claims for telehealth – and that report was prior to the explosion of telemedicine in 2020 due to COVID. All providers who have billed telehealth during the public health emergency (“PHE”) should be prepared to undergo audits of those claims.
The following audit projects are as follows:
- Audits of behavioral health care telehealth in Medicaid managed care;
- Audits of Medicare Part B telehealth services during PHE;
- Audits of home health services provided as telehealth during the PHE;
- Audits of home health agencies’ challenges and strategies in responding to the PHE;
- Medicare telehealth services during PHE: Program Integrity Risks;
- Audits of telehealth services in Medicare Parts B (non-institutional services) and C (managed care) during the COVID-19 pandemic;
- Medicaid: Telehealth expansion during PHE.
Recently added to the “chopping block” of audits via OIG include Medicare payments for clinical diagnostic laboratory tests in 2020. OIG will also audit for accuracy of place-of-service codes on claims for Medicare Part B physician services when beneficiaries are inpatients under Part A. As it always seems is the case, home health and behavioral health care are big, red targets for all audits. Over the pandemic, telehealth became the “new norm.” Audits on telehealth will be forthcoming. Specifically in behavioral health, OIG announced that it will audit Medicaid applied behavior analysis for children diagnosed with autism.
On another note, I recently had a client undergo a meaningful use audit. Everyone knows the government provides incentives for using electronic records. In order to qualify for a meaningful use incentive you must meet 9 criteria. If you fail one criterion, you owe the money back. One of the biggest issue physicians have faced in an audit is demonstrating the “yes/no” requirements that call for attestation proving the security risk analysis was successfully met. In this particular case, opposing counsel was a GA state AG. The attorney told me that he had zero authority to negotiate the penalty amount. It was the first time another lawyer told me that the penalty was basically a “strict liability” issue, and since the funds were federal, the State of GA had no authority to reduce or remove the penalty. But there is an appeal process. It made no sense. In this case, the doctor didn’t want to pursue litigation. So, reluctantly, we paid. I am wondering if any of my readers have encountered this issue of no negotiations for meaningful use penalties.
Increased Medicare Reimbursements and Nursing Home Audits
HEAR YE, HEAR YE: Medicare reimbursement rate increase!!
On April 27th, CMS proposed a rule to increase Medicare fee-for-service payment rates and policies for inpatient hospitals and long-term care hospitals for fiscal year (FY) 2022. The proposed rule will update Medicare payment policies and rates for operating and capital‑related costs of acute care hospitals and for certain hospitals. The proposed increase in operating payment rates for general acute care hospitals paid under the IPPS that successfully participate in the Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting (“IQR”) Program and are meaningful electronic health record (“EHR”) users is approximately 2.8%. This reflects the projected hospital market basket update of 2.5% reduced by a 0.2 percentage point productivity adjustment and increased by a 0.5 percentage point adjustment required by legislation.
Secondly, a sample audit of nursing homes conducted by CMS will lead to more scrutiny of nursing homes and long-term care facilities. The sample audit showed that two-thirds of Massachusetts’s nursing homes that receive federal Medicaid and Medicare funding are lagging in required annual inspections — and MA is demonstrative of the country.
237 nursing homes and long-term care facilities in the state, or 63.7% of the total, are behind on their federal health and safety inspections by at least 18 months. The national average is 51.3%.
We cannot blame COVID for everything. Those inspections lagged even before the pandemic, the data shows, but ground to a halt last year when the federal agency discontinued in-person visits to nursing homes as they were closed off to the public to help prevent spread of the COVID.
Lastly, on April 29, 2021, CMS issued a final rule to extend and make changes to the Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement (“CJR”) model. You’ve probably heard Dr. Ron Hirsch reporting on the joint replacement model on RACMonitor. The CJR model aims to pay providers based on total episodes of care for hip and knee replacements to curb costs and improve quality. Hospitals in the model that meet spending and quality thresholds can get an additional Medicare payment. But hospitals that don’t meet targets must repay Medicare for a portion of their spending.
This final rule revises the episode definition, payment methodology, and makes other modifications to the model to adapt the CJR model to changes in practice and fee-for-service payment occurring over the past several years. The changes in practice and payment are expected to limit or reverse early evaluation results demonstrating the CJR model’s ability to achieve savings while sustaining quality. This rule provides the time needed to test modifications to the model by extending the CJR model for an additional three performance years through December 31, 2024 for certain participant hospitals.
The CJR model has proven successful according to CMS. It began in 2016. Hospitals had a “statistically significant decrease” in average payments for all hip and knee replacements relative to a control group. $61.6 million (a savings of 2% of the baseline)
