Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

Surety bonds could close your doors if OIG implements this requirement ruthlessly.The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services had finalized in 1998 a surety bond requirement for home health agencies that Congress passed way back in 1997's Balanced Budget Act but had to put it on hold. The HHS Office of Inspector General wants it implemented now."The surety bond requirement is an important program integrity tool that provides a sentinel effect of keeping fraudulent providers out of the program and a means for Medicare to guarantee recoupment of some overpayments," says the OIG in its report, Surety Bonds Remain an Unused Tool to Protect Medicare from Home Health Overpayments (OEI-03-12-00070). The growth in both Medicare home health spending and the number of home care providers leaves the industry "highly vulnerable to fraud," the OIG insists.If CMS had implemented a $50,000 bond back in 1997, it could have recovered at least [...]