OIG Work Plan 2013 – Medical Equipment and Supplies

If you are not aware, every year the OIG ( Office of Inspector General) produces a report on what they plan to audit and review for the upcoming year. The new report does not take past items of interest off the table.

Here are some highlights for medical equipment suppliers:
1. They will review Accreditation Organization and their process for approving providers.
2. Service code modifier KX indicates the patient meets the medical criteria and upon request their is information that supports the medical need of the patient. In audits, they have found that providers have little to no documentation to support medical need. Make sure you read the medical records you obtain from physicians ordering services to ensure they include documentation that supports services you have provided.
3. In audits of lower limb prostheses, they have found in 267 providers audited no history of the patient having a lower limb amputation. I would recommend if you are providing prostheses, you obtain where the amputation was done. Medicare may not have documentation because it was not paid for by Medicare or change of physicians.
4. It appears they will be looking at reimbursement for several items and comparing it to other payor sources to see if they can reduce their reimbursement or frequency for items such as erect aids, back orthoses, parenteral nutrition, and CPAP (frequency).
5. Diabetic supplies will be reviewed for: a) see if medical records corroborate the IDDM as compared to NIDDM (making sure IDDM isn’t submitted just to bill for more supplies), b) multiple supplies, c) make sure supplies are not auto shipped, d) patients requests refill, e) the quantity of supplies left is documented at the time of request for refill, f) compares supplies provided to the competitive bid areas, g) see if “non-mail” order supplies were actually mailed, if they are in competitive bid areas, and h) IF supplies are mailed but KL not applies to indicate so the provider receives a higher rate of reimbursement.

If you have not started your compliance program audit and risk assessment protocol, these are some key areas to look at to reduce your business risk. Ask physicians to provide copies of medical records at the time of the order.

Remember, to look at the OIG Work Plan from 2012.  I outlined hightlights last year that you really need to review if you did not and continue to include those moving forward.

You may find the the OIG Work Plan details at https://oig.hhs.gov/reports-and-publications/workplan/index.asp and see Medicare Part I for Parts A & B.

Angela Miller of Medical Auditing Solutions LLC has been in health care compliance, auditing, billing, collections and HIPAA for over 18 years.  Ms. Miller is Certified in Healthcare Compliance.  Ms. Miller has made it the  focus of the business to help providers run their businesses efficiently, collect money, and maintain compliance with federal and state regulations and coverage criteria through compliance program development, management and training.  Ms. Miller is very experienced with Medicare & Payer audits.  Ms. Miller ran a very successful compliance program for over 5 years for the largest private held HME/Pharmacy provider in the US at the time.  Ms. Miller  also works as a contract compliance officer to provide an avenue to compliance training to staff, implementation of policies, as well as handling anything that affects cash flow from the initial intake to back-end collections. You can visit our website at Medical Auditing Solutions LLC.

Advertisement

Texas Dental Providers – Take Aways from HHSC Committee Meeting 3/20/12

I listened to the live Texas Senate Committee meeting regarding the Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) Charge 4 (dental & orthodontics) yesterday 3/20/12.  Unfortunately, this Senate Committee is concerned about the amount of money paid for orthodontic services and convinced Orthodontic services were provided at an abusive level and they want this money back.  I am providing what I took away from this meeting and we will discuss how to protect yourself.

1. Senator Jane Nelson is willing to push thru legislation to allow parents in the treatment room.  I didn’t understand this…I suspect she has received a complaint from a parent where the Dental Provider refused to allow the parent in the treatment room.  My opinion is, this is one thing if the room has a door or if the patient is sedated because you do not want to add liability to your business.  Having a second company staff member in the room present will reduce risk as well.  As for HIPAA, what are your privacy and security policies for this situation?  If you do not have policies, they have been required since 2003 and 2009 respectively so very important to get this done.
2. They want to go after dentist for the unlimited orthodontic visits.  Policy said “unlimited”!  Keep in mind if the Dental Provider was racking up unnecessary visits, it doesn’t matter if it is unlimited visits in policy, the visits were unnecessary therefore a potential fraud and abuse overpayment.  If these were legitimate visits and necessary, you should not pay that money back.  So policy for this is being reduced to 12 visits, they say.
3. They pay for transportation to the dentist if the patient cannot afford it.  At present the patients are paid upfront or MCD pays the transportation company.  In the future, they will have to provide proof of visit and proof they used the transportation to be reimbursed.
4. They are looking at bundling orthodontic rates versus per visit rate.
5. More talk of suspending provider numbers based on allegations of credible fraud.  This is huge and critically important to include exit interviews with staff that is leaving the company.  You also need to have a compliance program with reporting mechanism in place.  If you collect $5M or more in Medicaid funds you were required to have a healthcare compliance program in 2007.  All other Medicaid providers are required to have a compliance program by 2013.
6. Inspector General has 31 current investigations of Orthodontic practices at this time.
7. Senator Jane Nelson and the committee want the business to have to be licensed and registered with the dental board similar to a pharmacy with the pharmacy board.  I suspect changes will follow for a proposal of such.  This will bring additional revenue into the Dental Board but it will permit investigations into complaints of ABC Dental versus the need for a dental providers name which is the current requirement.
8. Expect audits to pick up on Orthodontic services.  They noticed as of 10/1/11 when the requirement to send molds went into place, request dropped and PARs were denied.  If you provided orthodontics to children under 13 or now 12, those are especially at risk for audit.
9. They put a lot of emphasis on HLD Scores.  Where do you record these and how you measure to get the score?
10. The TMHP Medicaid contractor responsible for reviewing this information basically rubber stamped requests.  They did not review for “medical necessity;”  it was primarily to make sure the form was completed and the HLD Score was >=26.  The Dental Director was terminated and they have hired a replacement.  They HHS/IG will be auditing the approved PARs (Prior Auth Requests) and recouping money.  The debate is if they will recoup from TMHP or from the provider.  Again, if the services were fraudulent and dishonest it, I fully expect they will go after the provider.  There is always a possibility if TMHP didn’t review and it did not meet the coverage criteria, they will try to recoup from the provider as well.  They expect these audits to be complete in 6-12 months and they have already started.
11. By using Dental Managed Care Payers, these organizations have experience in other states and they have ideas on how to reduce Fraud & Abuse (F&A).  They think by using someone with experience to review and process these claims will reduce F&A.
12. On the federal level, in 2010 Office of Audit Services contacted Texas inquiring about Orthodontic billing and providers.  So the federal government has taken notice of Texas and since they provide funding to the medicaid program, Texas has to respond to the concerns.
13. No recruiting clients in parking lots….…this seems to be an issue.
14. The HHSC office admitted the policies were such that it didn’t catch issues and the department processing was not staffed properly.
15. I would expect a tremendous increase in audits and policy changes.
16. Texas spent as much as 49 other states total from 9/1/08-5/28/11 on Orthodontic services.  An additional 500,000 kids were seen for checkups after the rates increased in 2008 by 50-100% than in previous years.
17. The committee suggested HHSC do a Cost Benefit Analysis on providing orthodontic care to children and if that prevented excessive spending later if it were not done.

Now, what should you do?  I strongly recommend the following and sometimes it is good to get an outside consultant to review because of objectivity and the familiarity with issues being identified.

1. Make sure you have HIPAA policies in place that are applicable to your business.
2. Assess whether you need a healthcare compliance program now (because you were required in 2007) or if not make a plan to get this done.
3. Items 1 and 2, a vital if you are investigated now even if not required.  Corporate culture is first questions the government asks.
4. A sample audit of claims.  This is critical because you need to assess your risk as a company.  Assess the documentation versus coverage criteria.
5. If audited, NEVER just cut a check for the overpayment requested!  Why, you ask?  The payer sees this as admission of guilt and if they haven’t extrapolated already they are more likely to do so.  This is not a good surprise to get in the mail6-12-14 months later!!  I have seen this happen.  Get a consultant and attorney and prepare a defense.  It will be less expensive to do when you get the audit than after the appeal process has started.

We work with several dental practices and the goal is to educate providers so they reduce risk and pass audits.  We also work with Looper, Reed, and McGraw LP, a law firm with attorneys that specializes in dental practices.  We work as a team with our practice and emphasize “proactive”operations.  We will be happy to schedule

Angela Miller of Medical Auditing Solutions LLC has been in health care compliance, auditing, billing, collections and HIPAA for over 18 years.  Ms. Miller has made it the  focus of the business to help providers run their businesses efficiently, collect money, and maintain compliance with federal and state regulations and coverage criteria through compliance program development, management and training.  Ms. Miller is very experienced with Medicare & Payer audits.  Ms. Miller ran a very successful compliance program for over 5 years for the largest private held HME/Pharmacy provider in the US at the time.  Ms. Miller  also works as a contract compliance officer to provide an avenue to compliance training to staff, implementation of policies, as well as handling anything that affects cash flow from the initial intake to back-end collections. You can visit our website at Medical Auditing Solutions LLC.

OIG Work Plan 2012

I participated in a call on Thursday January 19, 2012, on the OIG Work Plan for 2012.  Please reference the link for the full OIG Work Plan spelled out by provider type.  Many items on the Work Plan never change but there were a few points I felt important to draw your attention to for risk management purposes.  Here are a few notes I made because I think the audit risk is high since the result can be subjective:

1.  Outpatient Observation Billing

2.  Critical Access Hospitals:

A.  Distance to nearest, non-critical access hospital

B.  Herceptin and other Chemo Drug quantity

3.  Hospice because 82% of patients do not meet criteria to be admitted to hospice.

4.  Incident to Services by non-qualified personnel.  Even Blue Cross and Blue Shield is recouping and extrapolating on commercial claims for mid-level practitioner billing.  Make sure modifier is used when appropriate and the mid-level meets the licensing requirements to provide the services billed.

5.  Off Label Prescriptions.  Physicians ordering a drug that is approved for Diagnosis A but the drug is used for diagnosis B.

6.  Home Health-but not specific because they are going to review 2010 billing before they decide.

7.  Dialysis and ESRD Drug costs.  What is the drug cost to the provider versus the reimbursement.

8.  Contracts providers have with other providers/facilities.  Make sure you have a health care attorney to review the contract before executing because the health care attorneys are familiar with the Stark and Anti-Kickback provisions which typically the corporate business attorney does not have to consider.

9.  Checking employees, vendors, and providers against Sanction Databases MONTHLY.  You may find the federal links on my website.  The states have their own links.

10.  NY Medicaid reduced the annual revenues to $500K in Medicaid/Medicaid HMO/Managed Care Organizations (MCO) funds for compliance program requirement.

11.  Compliance Program Requirement under Federal Deficit Reduction Act that required all healthcare providers to have a compliance program in place by 2007 if their annual collected revenue of State reimbursement was $5M or more.  This would include Medicaid and respective Medicaid HMO or MCO.

12.  As of 2013 a healthcare compliance program is required for all providers billing Federal or State plans no matter what the annual billing revenue may be.  This would include dental practices because they bill Medicaid!

13.  Overpayments must be disclosed and refunded within 60 days of identification that it is an overpayment.  Failure to refund this money can result in “False Claims” charges and penalties.  Ensure you have someone that is accountable for working your credit balance reports monthly.  Keep documentation of these reviews and refunds issued as a result in a manner that can easily be explained and found.

The OIG Work Plan can be used to determine risk analysis, structure audit plans, and determine growth opportunities.

Do you have a Healthcare Compliance Program?

Do you review the OIG Work Plan Annually?

What else do you review to determine your audit plan?

We can help you analyze the status of your healthcare compliance program and ensure you have focused on the correct risks for your business model.  We are the compliance expert with a vast history and a cost effective way to ensure your compliance program is operating and managing your risk.

Angela Miller of Medical Auditing Solutions LLC has been in health care compliance, auditing, billing, collections and HIPAA for over 18 years.  Ms. Miller has made it the  focus of the business to help providers run their businesses efficiently, collect money, and maintain compliance with federal and state regulations and coverage criteria through compliance program development, management and training.  Ms. Miller is very experienced with Medicare & Payer audits.  Ms. Miller ran a very successful compliance program for over 5 years for the largest private held HME/Pharmacy provider in the US at the time.  Ms. Miller  also works as a contract compliance officer to provide an avenue to compliance training to staff, implementation of policies, as well as handling anything that affects cash flow from the initial intake to back-end collections. You can visit our website at Medical Auditing Solutions LLC.

Medtrade Spring 2010 – Vegas

The HME & Pharmacy industry has been hit hard the last couple of years with reimbursement cuts, competitive bidding and much more.  The big focus on Medtrade Vegas 2010 is to help the suppliers be proactive and more efficient with their business.  Medical Auditing Solutions will be there to meet with clients and vendors as well to be an active participant in these solutions.

Angela Miller will be speaking Wednesday, May 12,  at 9:15am on “Developing a Risk Protocol for Auditing.”  This program will discuss how to identify the risk model(s) for your business.  Every business will have a different risk model.  The program will review areas for auditing the risk model.   This program will be a tool to help you develop your audit plan.

We look forward to speaking with you.  If you miss the session and would like to schedule a meeting with Ms. Miller, you may contact her by email (angela@medicalauditingsolutions.com) or by mobile (409.673.7103).  No sales calls will be accepted.  This is a time for our clients.

Angela Miller of Medical Auditing Solutions LLC has been in health care compliance, auditing, billing, collections and HIPAA for over 18 years.  Ms. Miller has made it the  focus of the business to help providers run their businesses efficiently, collect money, and maintain compliance with federal and state regulations and coverage criteria.  Ms. Miller is very experienced with Medicare & Payer audits.  Ms. Miller ran a very successful compliance program for over 5 years for the largest private held HME/Pharmacy provider in the US at the time.  Ms. Miller  also works as a contract compliance officer to provide an avenue to compliance training to staff, implementation of policies, as well as handling anything that affects cash flow from the initial intake to back-end collections. You can visit our website at Medical Auditing Solutions LLC.