Home Health & Hospice Week

OIG powers would be expanded under bill. Congress' assault on fraud in the Medicare program continues. House Ways and Means Committee Chair Pete Stark (D-Calif.) has introduced a bill that would beef up the HHS Office of Inspector General's exclusion powers. H.R. 6130 would allow the OIG to ban corporate executives from doing business with Medicare if their companies were convicted of fraud, according to a press release. The bill also would give the OIG the ability to exclude parent companies that may be committing fraud through shell companies. "Medicare fraud is a crime against senior citizens, legitimate health care providers, and every  American who pays taxes," co-sponsor Wally Herger(D-Calif.) says in the release. "With Medicare already on an unsustainable fiscal path, it is inexcusable to allow more and more taxpayer dollars to be defrauded."