Milwaukee Nursing Home Abuse Attorney Shares Shocking Findings
Study: For-Profit Nursing Homes Most Likely to Overbill Medicare
On behalf of Milwaukee personal injury attorney Ric Domnitz of Domnitz & Domnitz, S.C. posted in Nursing Home Abuse on Thursday, January 13, 2011.
According to a U.S. government report, “for-profit nursing home companies led by Kindred Healthcare Inc. and Sun Healthcare Group Inc. are likelier than non-profit counterparts to overbill Medicare for the costliest services.” The study, released by the U.S. inspector general, found that Medicare needs to more proactively investigate instances where companies keep patients longer than needed, thus charging more for care and classifying patients to have more extensive, costly services than needed.
The report, submitted by the Health and Human Services Department’s Office of Inspector General, looked at nursing-home billings from 2006 to 2008 and concluded that the data “raises concerns about the potentially inappropriate use of higher-paying billing codes.” Following their analysis of the data, they recommended that Medicare, the U.S. health insurance program for the elderly and disabled, consider revamping its payment methods for nursing homes to over being overbilled by companies.
Currently, Medicare covers as much as 100 days of nursing-home services for “beneficiaries who require skilled care or rehabilitation following a hospitalization of at least three consecutive days.
As a result of these new findings, Medicare plans to research and analyze a undisclosed list of nursing homes with “questionable” billing practice. This investigation would specifically examine “special-nursing facilities” that cater to patients recovering from an injury or who are disabled.
Source: Bloomberg “For-Profit Nursing Homes More Likely to Overbill Medicare, U.S. Study Says” 12/23/2010
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