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Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

Legislative Update:

Reform Bill Gives Nod to Free Services for Financially Needy Patients

Published on Sat Jun 12, 2010

Home health agencies could get on board with this.  In the past, a provider that offered free home safety equipment to patients might expect a knock on the door from the OIG. But the healthcare reform legislation opens the door for providers to give financially needy Medicare or Medicaid patients free, non-covered items or services related to their medical care. A couple of OIG advisory opinions have frowned on those types of arrangements, says attorney Robert Belfort, with Manatt, Phelps & Phillips LLP in New York City. Under the healthcare reform law's new exception, however, a home health agency (HHA), as an example, could provide a free safety evaluation of a patient's home, he says. Or the HHA could install home safety equipment that could make it safer for the patient to live there. "Arguably, it would be to the patient's benefit to keep them in the home so they [...]
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