Medicare to cap payments amid rampant fraud
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http://www.miamiherald.com/460/story/1171663.html
How will this effect Hospice billing, because I'm pretty sure it is billed for under Medicare. I personally have had the use of their services twice regarding both my parents. Had it not been for them I really can't imagine how I would have been able to provide the proper care my parents needed in their last days.
Fueled by massive fraud, home healthcare providers in Miami-Dade County are raking in more Medicare money than their colleagues in the rest of the country combined -- thanks to bogus billings for patients with diabetes, authorities say.
Now, Medicare is taking tough steps to stop agencies from filing hundreds of millions of dollars a year in false claims.
The federal agency is proposing a nationwide cap that would reduce Medicare reimbursements to any agency treating homebound patients with diabetes or other chronic ailments. The proposed limit: 10 percent of the bill.
Though national in scope, Medicare's plan is really aimed at shutting down hundreds of home healthcare agencies in Miami-Dade suspected of submitting phony claims for twice-daily insulin injections by a visiting nurse, officials said.
``We looked at [Miami-Dade] as an albatross because it was weighing us all down,'' said William Dombi, a vice president at the National Association for Home Care and Hospice, a Washington trade group that pitched the 10 percent cap to Congress. ``It's beyond an embarrassment -- it's harmful to everyone across the country.''
