Home Health & Hospice Week

Senator Wants Medicare Contractors To Get Tough

Obtaining the Medicare payments that are rightfully yours may get even tougher if one influential lawmaker gets his way. In an Oct. 6 letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and CMS Administrator Donald Berwick, Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Charles Grassley (RIowa) asks CMS to hold its Medicare contractors more accountable for overpayments due to fraud and abuse. Grassley cites billing from DME fraudsters as an example of the losses for which Medicare contractors should be held accountable. He also highlights the OIG's latest series of reports on DME claims using KX modifiers, in which the OIG detected overpayments. Grassley is concerned about "the lack of or inadequate management and oversight of contractors by" CMS, he says in the letter.
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