May 2018

Zone Program Integrity Contractors’ (“ZPIC”) ability to recoup payments as a hospital appeals the ZPIC’s audit finding may have been weakened. A recent decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, Family Rehabilitation, Incorporated V. Azar, 886 F. 3d 496, (5th Cir. 3/27/2018), sent a strong message regarding the federal government’s administration of Medicare claims appeals: failure to provide a provider with a timely appeal may be grounds for a violation of due-process. Pertinent to hospitals on an operational level, an untimely administrative hearing may be grounds for the hospital to seek an injunction of the corresponding recoupment. Either way, the Family Rehabilitation decision should not be ignored. Continue reading →

As mentioned in a previous article Recent CMS Guidance Could Jeopardize Medicare Provider Agreement, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) recently issued Survey and Certification Memo: 17-44-Hospitals (“S&C 17-44”) which requires hospitals to have a minimum of two inpatients at the time of survey, as well as an average length of stay (“ALOS”) and average daily census (“ADC”) of two over the past twelve months. At the time of that article (February 2018), CMS had not yet issued any public notices of intent to terminate a hospital’s Medicare Provider Agreement for failing to be “primarily engaged” in providing services to inpatients. That has since changed. Continue reading →

Monthly Archives: May 2018

Patience is a Virtue, an Administrative Hearing is a Right: Fifth Circuit Creates Possibility of Enjoining Recoupment

CMS Terminates Medicare Provider Agreement For Failing to be “Primarily Engaged” in Providing Services to Inpatients