The HHS Office of the Inspector General reported CMS is owed $543 million in Medicare overpayments from fiscal year 2010, but the agency is unlikely to receive much of the money due to insufficient accounting practices.
Legal & Regulatory Issues
The HHS' Office of Inspector General has ramped up its auditing and compliance review efforts over the past several years under President Barack Obama, especially in how hospitals and health systems are billing Medicare for inpatient and outpatient services.
A New York bill that would prohibit smoking while on hospital campus grounds and within 15 feet of hospitals' property lines is headed to Gov. Andrew Cuomo's desk, according to a Legislative Gazette report.
Less than three months after its CEO and CFO were arrested for alleged fraud, Sacred Heart Hospital in Chicago has abruptly shut its doors, according to a Chicago Tribune report.
The University of Louisville (Ky.) Hospital has agreed to pay the federal government roughly $2.83 million to resolve allegations of false billing to Medicare, according to a Courier-Journal report.
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The American Hospital Association and five hospitals are opposing the government's attempt to dismiss their lawsuit against CMS, which challenges the agency's payment denial policy.
Rep. Jim McDermott, MD, (D-Wash.) has proposed a bill that would alter Medicare fees for physicians by creating a panel of independent experts to watch over the Relative Value Scale Update Committee, according to a report from The Hill.
The Obama administration issued final rules today addressing the availability of contraceptive coverage to women who work for nonprofit religious organizations that object to contraception, according to an HHS news release.
More than two dozen Republican senators called for HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to discontinue her work assisting Enroll America, a nonprofit group aiming to encourage Americans to sign up for the health insurance exchanges.
Boston-based Tufts Medical Center is expected to repay $1.09 million to the federal government after a second audit from the HHS Office of Inspector General found the 415-bed hospital had billing errors within its inpatient claims.