Proposed rule goes too far

From: HME News

by: Elizabeth Deprey

WASHINGTON – Providers with high error rates could lose their billing privileges if a proposed rule takes effect.

The Department of Health and Human Services published a proposed rule in the Federal Register April 29 that contains a provision that would expand Medicare’s authority to revoke billing privileges to cases where the provider “has a pattern or practice of billing for services that do not meet Medicare requirements.”

That’s going too far, say stakeholders.

“This is not revocation for fraud,” said Steve Azia, counsel at Washington, D.C.-based Baker Donelson. “A provider could lose billing privileges based on an error rate that’s often overturned.”

The provision basically does away with due process, said Azia.

Read Complete Article