(July 19, 2010): Home health care providers are in the crosshairs again. On July 15, HHS granted Florida a waiver of the anti-data mining provisions of federal Medicaid program regulations that will allow its Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) to begin seeking out reasons to investigate home health and other providers for fraud. While Florida is the first and currently the only state to obtain a waiver of this type, if Florida’s MFCU strike force pilot program succeeds, the other 49 MFCUs could soon be doing the same thing. MFCU strike forces are designed to investigate referred cases of fraud. They are prohibited by 42 CFR §1007.19(e)(2) from receiving federal funding for conducting analysis to independently identify Medicaid fraud. In their formal July 7th request, the Florida Attorney General and Florida Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary requested an expedited waiver of those protections.
The pilot program, intended to be effective January 1, 2011, will allow the state MFCU to use data mining to “identify situations in which a question of fraud may exist, including the screening of claims, analyses of patterns of practice, or routine verification with recipients of whether services billed by providers were actually received.” The Florida officials’ request makes a point of calling out home health providers in justifying this expansion of the MFCU’s powers, declaring that:
"[S]ome services such as durable medical equipment and home health are frequent targets of fraudulent activity…" and
"areas of particular concern that the demonstration would address include …home and community based waivers, payments to assisted living facilities, and home health services." (Emphasis added).
We are greatly concerned by the continued targeting of home health providers by state and Federal officials. Given the explicit program goals of increasing the number of leads and cases, the number of arrests and convictions, the number of overpayment and abuse referrals, and the recovery of funds and then serving as a model for other states, this program warrants close monitoring.
Should you have any questions regarding these issues, don’t hesitate to contact us. For a complementary consultation, you may call Robert W. Liles or one of our other attorneys at 1 (800) 475-1906.