The Senate committee requested suggestions from the healthcare community in an open May 2 letter, according to the report.
“The powerful weapon of the False Claims Act should not be wielded in a misguided attempt to correct or prevent mistakes,” AHA Executive Vice President Rick Pollack wrote in the association’s letter to the Senate. “A powerful weapon like the FCA must be wielded appropriately and with significant care.”
AHA provided the Senate Finance Committee with the following recommendations, according to the report:
- Eliminate overlap and duplication that exists in current program integrity oversight;
- Limit the unfettered discretion over treatment decisions now exercised by many auditors and Department of Justice attorneys by establishing clear payment policies that underscore the central role of the treating physician in hospital readmissions; and
- Improve current proposals to facilitate hospitals’ return of overpayments that result from mistakes.
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