“Hospitals improperly coding for post-discharge services contribute to hundreds of millions of dollars in Medicare overpayments. And the majority of incorrect payments are often related to home health services.”
“That’s according to a new audit report from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG).”
“The purpose of the OIG audit was to determine if payments met the standards of Medicare’s post-acute care transfer policy. As part of the audit, OIG examined almost 90,000 in-patient claims filed in fiscal years 2016 and 2017, totaling $948 million.”
“Auditors took a sample of 150 claims and found that Medicare only paid three correctly. Meanwhile, 147 incorrectly paid claims received $722,288 in overpayments.”
“Overall, that means Medicare may have incorrectly paid $267 million for hospital services over a two-year period, according to OIG. About $218 million of that amount was related to the improper coding of a discharge directly to home, audit found…” Read the full article here.
Source: OIG: Medicare Overpaid $267M for Hospital In-Patient Claims with Post-Acute Transfers to Home Health Services – By Joyce Famakinwa, August 10, 2020. Home Health Care News.
