Memo to Lab Compliance Managers: Brace yourself for what may become the next big federal false billing crackdown against labs, specifically labs performing COVID-19 tests. The OIG has let it be known … [Read more...]
Compliance Alert
Be Sure You Can Document Medical Necessity of COVID-19 ‘Add-On Tests’
August 4, 2020
Compliance Alert
OIG Targets COVID-19 Test Labs for Potential Add-on Testing Abuses
July 20, 2020
Are labs taking advantage of the unprecedented demand for COVID-19 testing to bill Medicare for high reimbursing and medically unnecessary add-on tests? That’s what the OIG suspects and it plans to … [Read more...]
CORONAVIRUS
HHS Puts Information Blocking and EHI Operability on Hold Due to COVID-19 Crisis
May 27, 2020
On March 9, 2020, the HHS Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) and CMS issued but didn’t publish final rules designed to improve patient access to their own … [Read more...]
Coronavirus
OIG Temporarily Waives Anti-Kickback Restrictions for Certain COVID-19 Physician Arrangements
April 16, 2020
As it previously did with the Stark Law (See National Intelligence Report, NIR, March 25, 2020), the OIG is temporarily loosening Antikickback Statute (AKS) restrictions to clear the way for health … [Read more...]
OIG
OIG Work Plan: Agency to Focus on Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting
January 27, 2020
The five new items the OIG added to its Work Plan have no direct impact on labs or lab services, although three of them might have an indirect effect on some labs. Here’s the rundown. CDC … [Read more...]
LABS IN COURT
Massachusetts Practice Busted for Taking Free POCT Cups from Millennium
January 15, 2020
Case: A northern Massachusetts medical practice and Detroit pain clinic became the latest downstream providers to pay the OIG a five-figure fine to settle kickback claims in the form of accepting free … [Read more...]
ENFORCEMENT
Enforcement Trends: Increase in OIG Fraud Recoveries Belies Continued Decline in Enforcement Actions
January 3, 2020
OIG fraud recovery has been a solid growth business for nearly two decades. So, when the agency announced a decline in FY 2018 recovery figures, it was more than a bit surprising. But things got back … [Read more...]
OIG Workplan
OIG Work Plan: Agency to Focus on Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting
January 2, 2020
The five new items the OIG added to its Work Plan in December 2019 have no direct impact on labs or lab services, although three of them might have an indirect effect on some labs. Here’s the … [Read more...]
OIG
Scorecard: OIG Enforcement Actions against Labs in 2019
January 2, 2020
Labs remain at the top of the OIG’s enforcement hit list, as illustrated by the number of cases involving labs cited in the agency’s new Semiannual Report to Congress for FY 2019: False Billing … [Read more...]
