Client Alerts, News Articles & Blog Posts

Everything you need to know about BMD and the industry.

CLIENT ALERT: Medicare Trust Fund to Run Out of Funding Beginning in 2026, Likely to See an Increase in Audits, Overpayment Demands and Extrapolations

June 6, 2018

Pursuant to a Medicare Trustee Report released on June 5, 2018, the Medicare trust fund will run out of funding beginning in 2026, which is three years earlier than previously expected.  Although the Trustee’s report requests that Congress and the President act with urgency to remedy this problem, in the short term, we expect to see an increase in government payer audits, overpayment demands, and extrapolations.

 

If implemented in full strength, these overpayment demands and extrapolations can result in payers recovering millions of dollars from providers, which may be returned to the trust fund.  In the alternative, payers and their contractors may allege overpayments so that providers agree to a settlement requesting the provider to accept pennies on the dollar for the true amount owed to the provider.

 

Either way, it is now more crucial than ever before that providers take action when government payers and their contractors seek to conduct pre- and post-payment audits and otherwise seek the refund of overpayments.

 

BMD’s Healthcare Department can meet with you to discuss your options if your practice is facing pre- and/or post-payment audits and denials.  If you are subjected to an overpayment, including an extrapolation, our experienced team can strategize your appeal and arguments for success in challenging the overpayment allegations.

 

If you have any questions concerning payer audits, appeals, overpayments, and extrapolations, or the administrative appeal process in general, please contact  Amanda L. Waesch, Esq. (alwaesch@bmdllc.com) or Bryan E. Meek, Esq. (bmeek@bmdllc.com), attorneys in Brennan, Manna & Diamond’s Provider Relations, Audits, Appeals, and Negotiations Unit, a division of BMD’s Healthcare Department.

 

Client Alert

CLIENT ALERT: Proposed New Rules to both the Stark Law and the Anti-Kickback Statute

October 14, 2019On October 9, 2019, as part of the “Regulatory Sprint to Coordinate Care,” the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”), along with the US Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (“OIG”), proposed new rules to both the physician self-referral law (“Stark Law”) and the Anti-Kickback Statute (“AKS”). Rule changes are aimed at fostering innovative arrangements for coordinating care consistent with a shift to a value-based system. Both proposed rules are expected to be published to the Federal Register on October 17, 2019. Public comments are due 75 days after publication.Client Alert

CLIENT ALERT: New Overtime Rule Raises Minimum Salary Requirements and Other Changes to the Fair Labor Standards Act

September 24, 2019Today, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued its Final Rule updating the regulations under the Fair Labor Standard Act: Effective January 1, 2020, employees who make less than $35,568 are now eligible for overtime pay under a final rule issued by the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”). The DOL expects 1.3 million workers to become newly eligible for overtime by updating the thresholds. The new rule will raise the salary threshold to $684 per week ($35,568 annualized) from $455 per week. This means that even if your employee qualifies under one of the overtime exemptions, if the employee is not earning at least $684/week, the employee will be eligible for overtime and minimum wage requirements.Client Alert

CLIENT ALERT: BWC issuing $1.5 billion in premium refunds to Ohio employers

July 9, 2019The Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (BWC) has now reported that the Board of Directors approved a proposal to send $1.5 billion of the agency’s revenues to Ohio employers covered by the BWC system.Client Alert

CLIENT ALERT: Medicare Providers having multiple locations should verify and revalidate their address information to avoid claim denials

June 4, 2019MLN Matters SE19007 “Activation of Systematic Validation Edits for OPPS Providers with Multiple Service Locations” notifies providers that Medicare is now requiring the exact match of all addresses for practice locations that are listed on provider claim submissions to Medicare.Client Alert

CLIENT ALERT: Capitalizing on New Opportunity Zone Incentives to Spur Economic Development

May 13, 2019CLIENT ALERT: New Opportunity Zone Incentives Promise to Spur Economic Development
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