AUSTIN, Texas—Oracle announced Seema Verma has been named senior vice president and general manager, Life Sciences. In this role, she will lead the Oracle Life Sciences and Oracle Cerner Enviza lines of business.
NEW YORK—Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced Matthew Taylor Witkowski was sentenced to 60 months in prison for conspiracy to commit health care fraud by fraudulently trafficking in orders for durable medical equipment (DME) such as back, knee and elbow braces. Witkowski previously pled guilty to the conspiracy charge and was sentenced before United States District Judge Denise L. Cote.
WASHINGTON—The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced it is releasing ownership data for all Medicare-certified hospice and homecare agencies. For the first time, anyone can now review detailed information on the ownership of more than 6,000 hospices and 11,000 home health agencies certified to participate in the Medicare program on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) website.
Spring House, PENNSYLVANIA—The Compliance Team (TCT), a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)-approved national healthcare accreditation organization, announced a new accreditation program for Local Health Departments (LHDs).
ATLANTA – Nagaindra Srivastav has been sentenced on conspiracy and kickback charges for his role in selling fraudulent doctors’ orders to his co-conspirators who used the orders to obtain more than $48 million in fraudulent payments from Medicare.
Hospice patients will be able to receive concurrent care with Medicare Advantage as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) extended its Value-Based Insurance Design for calendar years 2025 through 2030. The extension also grants health plans the ability to restrict Medicare Advantage Organizations (MAOs) from using out-of-network providers in 2026.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), released the Calendar Year (CY) 2024 Medicare Advantage (MA) and Part D Rate Announcement that finalized payment policies for these programs. According to HHS, the final policies in the Rate Announcement aim to improve payment accuracy and ensure taxpayer dollars are well spent.
HOUSTON—A 63-year-old Sugar Land resident has been ordered to prison for conspiracy to pay and receive kickbacks, announced U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani.
Washington, D.C.—In response to a requirement of the Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA), 2023, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) presented data used to determine Medicare home health payment rates for calendar year (CY) 2023, including the permanent and temporary rate adjustments calculated under the Patient Driven Groupings Model (PDGM) “budget neutrality” requirements.
ALEXANDRIA, Virginia—The National Home Infusion Association (NHIA) announced it successfully petitioned the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to secure a new billing code for injectable immunotherapies and revise an existing code to facilitate administration of a wider range of monoclonal antibodies for Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV).
LOS ANGELES— AppliedVR, an immersive therapeutics (ITx) company, announced the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) established a unique Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS) Level II code (E1905) for its flagship product, the RelieVRx program.
Washington, D.C.—U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) joined 21 Senators in a request to the Biden Administration to publicize the effect of the Inflation Reduction Act’s Medicare Part B inflation rebate on coinsurance in the program.
AAHomecare and oxygen stakeholders joined major respiratory associations in asking HHS to protect access to respiratory products for patients who qualified for care under relaxed guidelines during the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE).
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released a proposed national coverage determination (NCD) decision that would, for the first time, expand coverage for power seat elevation equipment on certain power wheelchairs to Medicare individuals. The proposed NCD is open for public comment for 30 days.
WASHINGTON—The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued additional provider-specific guidance for the winding down of the COVID-19 public health emergency, which is set to end May 11.
WASHINGTON—The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has added 10 HCPCS codes to the list of those that require face-to-face encounter and a written order, bringing the total up to 63 codes, according to VGM Government Relations.
The new codes, all for back, knee and ankle or foot braces, are:
WASHINGTON, DC—The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) should require hospice care providers to report all allegations of abuse and neglect immediately to survey agencies, regardless of whether the alleged perpetrator is affiliated with the hospice, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) urged in a new report.
The Department of Health and Human Services neither agreed nor disagreed with GAO's recommendation.
OAKBROOK TERRACE, Illinois–The Joint Commission announced it is eliminating 168 standards, or 14% overall, and revising 14 other standards across its accreditation programs to streamline requirements and make them as efficient and impactful on patient safety, quality and equity as possible. That includes deleting 10 homecare standards and revising one.
The first tranche of standards deletions and revisions by program, effective Jan. 1, 2023, include:
WASHINGTON (December 20, 2022)—Most of the providers who were enrolled in Medicare under COVID-19-related waivers and then had their enrollments revoked were durable medical equipment, prosthetics and orthotics (DMEPOS) suppliers, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
