Medicare

Published on: February 26, 2014

Medicare Therapy Cap Exception Extended

On December 18, 2013, Congress enacted legislation extending the Medicare therapy cap until March 31, 2014. The 2014 outpatient therapy cap limits are $1,920 for physical therapy and speech-language pathology services combined, and $1,920 for occupational therapy services. In order to qualify for an exception to the therapy cap limits and continue to receive Medicare reimbursement, therapists must first document the need for medically reasonable and necessary services in the beneficiary’s medical record and, separately, the therapist must indicate on the Medicare claim for services that the outpatient therapy services above the therapy cap are medically reasonable and necessary. Further, starting January 1, 2014, the Medicare outpatient therapy cap limits will also apply to therapy services performed in critical access hospitals.

Providers that meet or exceed the $3,700 threshold in therapy expenditures will be subject to a manual review. The manual review process for 2013 is not expected to change in 2014. Under the manual medical review process, Recovery Audit Contractors (RACs) will conduct either prepayment or postpayment review for claims exceeding $3,700 depending on the state. Currently, only Florida, California, Michigan, Texas, New York, Louisiana, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Carolina and Missouri are subject to prepayment review, while the rest of the nation is subject to postpayment review.

A bill that is currently working its way through Congress seeks to permanently repeal the therapy caps. The Medicare Access to Rehabilitation Act has bipartisan support and its sponsors argue that an arbitrary cap on outpatient services without regard to clinical need discriminates against some of the most vulnerable and needy Medicare recipients.

Published on: February 18, 2014

CMS Revises Medicare Policy Manuals Clarifying that Improvement Standards are Not Required for Coverage

by Wachler & Associates, P.C.

On January 15, 2014, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), issued revisions to their policy manuals, including the Medicare Benefit Policy Manual, that clarify that “Improvement Standards” are not required for determining claims for Medicare coverage involving skilled care, including skilled nursing facilities (SNF), home health (HH), and outpatient therapy (OPT) benefits. The purpose of these revisions is to comply with the January 24, 2013 Jimmo v. Sebelius settlement agreement which required clarification that coverage of skilled nursing and skilled therapy services “…does not turn on the presence or absence of a beneficiary’s potential for improvement, but rather on the beneficiary’s need for skilled care.” Citing the agreement’s justification, CMS noted that, no “Improvement Standard” is to be applied in determining Medicare coverage for maintenance claims that require skilled care. Medicare has long recognized that even in situations where no improvement is possible, skilled care may nevertheless be needed for maintenance purposes (i.e., to prevent or slow a decline in condition). The Medicare statute and regulations have never supported the imposition of an “Improvement Standard” rule-of-thumb in determining whether skilled care is required to prevent or slow deterioration in a patient’s condition. Thus, such coverage depends not on the beneficiary’s restoration potential, but on whether skilled care is required, along with the underlying reasonableness and necessity of the services themselves. The manual revisions serve to reflect and articulate this basic principle more clearly.

Included with the manual revisions, CMS took the opportunity to introduce additional guidance for appropriate documentation in facilitating accurate coverage determinations for claims involving skilled care. CMS noted that, “While the presence of appropriate documentation is not, in and of itself, an element of the definition of a ‘skilled’ service, such documentation serves as the means by which a provider would be able to establish and a Medicare contractor would be able to confirm that skilled care is, in fact, needed and received in a given case.”

The manual clarifications fulfill the first step required of CMS in the Jimmo settlement agreement. The agreement also sets forth an educational campaign, in which CMS agreed to disseminate written materials to contractors, adjudicators, providers, and suppliers, and conduct national conference calls with providers and suppliers as well as Medicare contractors, Administrative Law Judges, medical reviewers, and agency staff, to communicate the policy clarifications and answer questions. CMS has also committed to engage in accountability measures to ensure beneficiaries receive the care to which they are entitled. Such measures include review of a random sample of SNF, HH, and OPT coverage decisions to determine overall trends and identify any problems, as well as a review of individual claims determinations that may not have been made in accordance with the principles set forth in the settlement agreement.

Published on: January 23, 2014

CMS to Make Physician Payment Information Available on Case-by-Case Basis

by Wachler & Associates, P.C.

On January 14, 2014, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) modified their policy regarding the disclosure of physician payment information under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Effective March 18, 2014, CMS will now evaluate requests for individual physician payment information on a case-by-case basis.

CMS Principal Deputy Administrator, Jonathon Blum, cites the agency’s commitment to greater transparency and the benefits numerous stakeholders have identified that would result from an increase in the availability of information as reasons for the change in policy. Some benefits CMS hopes the policy will lead to include:

• Provider collaboration on improved care management and lower costs in the delivery of health care;

Published on: January 17, 2014

OIG Approves Industry Stakeholders’ Contributions to a Patient Assistance Program under the Anti-Kickback Statute

by Wachler & Associates, P.C.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office of Inspector General (OIG) recently released an advisory opinion that highlights long-standing OIG guidance as to how industry stakeholders can contribute to independent, bona fide charitable assistance programs. In this case, the patient assistance program (“Requestor”) provides grants to patients suffering from a specific disease for insurance premiums and other expenses not covered by insurance. The Requestor is a supporting organization of a nonprofit charitable foundation (“Foundation”) that exists solely to support the disease.

The Requestor’s main source of funding is the Foundation. However, all funds received from the Foundation are ultimately donations by pharmaceutical manufactures of the drugs used to treat the disease. The Requestor thus sought an advisory opinion to determine if such an arrangement would be grounds for civil monetary penalties under section 1128A(a)(5) of the Social Security Act (“Act”), covering improper beneficiary inducements, or other provisions of the Act as those sections relate to the Federal anti-kickback statute.

In the advisory opinion, AO No. 13-19, the OIG reiterates long-standing OIG guidance that industry stakeholders may contribute to the health care safety net for financially needy patients, including beneficiaries of Federal health care programs, by contributing to independent, bona fide charitable assistance programs. The OIG also states that such programs should not exert influence over donors, and donors should not have links to the charity that could directly or indirectly influence the charity’s operations or subsidy programs. Further, such programs cannot function as a conduit for payments from donors to patients, impermissibly influence beneficiary choices, or engage in practices that effectively subsidize a donor’s particular product.

Published on: January 13, 2014

OMHA Announces Appellant Forum for February 12 to Discuss Increasing Efficiency in the ALJ Hearing Program

by Wachler & Associates, P.C.

On Wednesday, February 12, at 10:00 am EST, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Office of Medicare Hearings and Appeals (OMHA) will hold a Medicare Appellant Forum in the Cohen Auditorium of the Wilbur J. Cohen building at 330 Independence Ave. SW, Washington DC, 20024. The purpose of the forum will be to:

Inform OMHA appellants on the status of OMHA operations;
Discuss a number of initiatives designed to mitigate the growing backlog of OMHA-level appeals; and

Published on: December 13, 2013

CMS Advisory Opinion Approves Proposed Hospital Expansion under Stark Law’s Whole Hospital Exception

by Wachler & Associates, P.C.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) recently released a favorable advisory opinion, CMS AO-2013-03, that interprets the “whole hospital” exception to the physician self-referral prohibition commonly known as the Stark Law. CMS determined that the proposed arrangement, which adds a new observation unit and 14 observation beds to a physician-owned hospital, complies with the “whole hospital” exception’s restriction on facility expansions.

In general, the Stark Law prohibits the referral of Medicare patients for designated health services (“DHS”) to an entity in which the referring physician has a financial relationship. The law also prohibits the entity that furnishes DHS as a result of a prohibited referral from billing Medicare, the beneficiary, or any other entity.

The Stark Law contains several exceptions to which the self-referral prohibition does not apply, including the “whole hospital” exception under Section 1877(d)(3). The “whole hospital” exception allows referring physicians to have physician ownership or investment interests in a hospital provided that the referring physician is authorized to perform services at the hospital and the ownership or investment interest is in the hospital itself.

Published on: November 18, 2013

“Probe and Educate” Hospital Inpatient Audits Extended an Additional 3 Months

by Wachler & Associates, P.C.

On November 12, 2013, CMS held a third open door forum (ODF) discussing the Fiscal Year (FY) 2014 Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS)/Long-Term Care Hospital (LTCH) Final Rule (CMS-1599-F). As of November 4, 2013, the patient status probe review period that was previously applicable through December 31, 2013 has been extended through March 31, 2014. CMS has issued helpful guidance on questions and answers relating to patient status reviews, selecting hospital claims for patient status reviews, and reviewing hospital claims for patient status.

These “probe and educate” reviews will be conducted on a prepayment basis to assess whether hospitals are in compliance with the admission order requirements and 2-midnight benchmark. Because these reviews will be conducted on a prepayment basis, the MACs will deny any claims not meeting these three requirements. The initial sample probe reviews will consist of 10-25 claims per hospital with dates of admission from October 1 through December 31, 2013.

MAC review of the inpatient hospital claims will provide outreach and education about the inpatient rule and will help ensure that hospitals understand and comply with the Medicare requirements. Upon completion of the 10-25 claim reviews, if the MACs do not find any issues with the particular hospital’s claim documentation then further probes will not be conducted for that hospital (unless there are significant changes in billing patterns for admissions).

Published on: November 11, 2013

Open Door Forum on Final IPPS Rule Tomorrow at 1:00

by Wachler & Associates, P.C.

Tomorrow from 1:00-2:00 pm Eastern Time, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will hold a third open door forum (ODF) to discuss the Fiscal Year (FY) 2014 Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS)/Long-Term Care Hospital (LTCH) Final Rule (CMS-1599-F).

On August 2, 2013, CMS issued the FY 2014 IPPS/LTCH Final Rule (final rule) which finalized proposals related to patient status during short-stay hospital cases, including the new standards for inpatient admission and the medical review criteria for payment of hospital short-stay inpatient services under Medicare Part A. On September 5, 2013, CMS issued sub-regulatory guidance regarding the final rule’s requirements for hospital inpatient admission order and certification, which are conditions of payment under Medicare Part A. This sub-regulatory guidance was issued in part as a result of the significant confusion surrounding CMS’s requirements for inpatient admission orders and physician certifications of inpatient services. CMS also posted subregulatory instructions and frequently asked questions, relating to the claim selection process and preliminary review guidelines, for conducting patient status reviews of claims with dates of admission beginning in October 2013.

Questions on the two midnight provision for admission and medical review may be sent to CMS before the ODF begins via email to IPPSAdmissions@cms.hhs.gov. Questions on Part B inpatient billing and clarifications regarding physician order and certification can be sent to Section3133DSH@cms.hhs.gov.

Published on: October 21, 2013

OIG Report on “Questionable” Billing for Polysomnography Services May Lead to Closer Scrutiny of Sleep Laboratories

by Wachler & Associates, P.C.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) recently issued a report addressing increased Medicare spending on polysomnography services. The OIG initiated this study in response to growing concerns of Medicare prescriber fraud.

A polysomnography is a type of sleep study that diagnoses sleep disorders such as sleep apnea. The claims submitted by sleep centers that conduct these studies have been under serious scrutiny by fraud investigators in recent years. In January 2013, American Sleep Medicine LLC, a sleep testing center operator based in Florida, agreed to pay $15.3 million to resolve allegations of false polysomnography claims submitted to Medicare, TRICARE, and the Railroad Retirement Medicare Program in violation of the False Claims Act (FCA).

According to the OIG’s report, Medicare spending for polysomnography services rose 39 percent between the years 2005 and 2011. The OIG analyzed Medicare claims from hospital outpatient departments, as well as non-hospital providers such as independent diagnostic testing facilities and physician-owned sleep laboratories, starting in 2011. The OIG found that almost $17 million in Medicare claims for polysomnography services were inappropriate, meaning the claims did not meet one or more of three requirements for Medicare reimbursement, including claims that had inappropriate diagnosis codes, were same-day duplicate claims or were submitted with an invalid NPI. In addition, the report stated that out of 6,339 providers of polysomnography services, 180 providers exhibited patterns of questionable billing. “Questionable billing” patterns included providers that billed an unusually high percentage of: (1) same-day duplicate claims, beneficiaries who had polysomnography claims from one or more other providers in 2011, (3) diagnostic polysomnography claims with a titration claim for the same beneficiary on the following day, or (4) claims in which there was no visit note from the ordering provider in the preceding year.

Published on: October 3, 2013

Judge Orders Tuomey to Pay $237 Million for Stark and False Claims Act Violations

by Wachler & Associates, P.C.

On September 30, 2013, Federal Judge Margaret Seymour of the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina ordered South Carolina’s Tuomey Healthcare System to pay $276.8 million for violating both Stark law and False Claims Act (FCA) provisions; however, this ordered amount was subsequently reduced by $39 million to correct a clerical error. The payment order came after a May 8, 2013 jury verdict in which the jury found that Tuomey had submitted 21,730 Medicare claims which stemmed from illegal compensation arrangements with physicians to induce patient referrals to the hospital. Tuomey has already filed a motion announcing its intent to appeal to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The Stark law prohibits a physician from making referrals for certain designated health services payable by Medicare to an entity with which he or she has a financial relationship (ownership, investment or compensation). As this case demonstrates, the penalties for violating the Stark law – denial of payment, civil monetary penalty (CMP) of $15,000 per service, and $100,000 CMP for each arrangement or scheme – are severe and can also lead to even more extreme penalties under the FCA. What many providers may not know is that although the requisite intent must exist under the FCA, the Stark law is a strict liability statute that does not take into account the intent of the providers involved. As such, providers should evaluate potential business arrangements, or reevaluate current business arrangements, to ensure such arrangement is not in violation of the Stark law. Moreover, when an arrangement potentially implicates the Stark law, providers should also be sure to analyze the arrangement under the Anti-Kickback statute and other applicable fraud and abuse laws.

If you would like assistance in analyzing a potential or existing business arrangement under the Stark law, including a detailed opinion of whether your arrangement qualifies as an exception to Stark, or if you have any other questions relating to the Stark law, Anti-Kickback statute, False Claims Act or other fraud and abuse laws, please contact an experienced health care attorney via phone at 248-544-0888 or via email at wapc@wachler.com.