A relatively new Medicaid health homes program has caught the eye of a health-care watchdog, with a report expected by fiscal year 2019.The Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General will review an optional Medicaid benefit that creates health homes for beneficiaries with chronic health conditions. The new review was announced in a Sept. 15 update to the OIG’s work plan.States participating in the program receive higher payments from the federal government for the first eight quarters of the program, and the review will make sure the money is being used appropriately and in compliance with federal and state requirements.
While the OIG audit is focused on the operations of the new program, the OIG is certain to keep in mind its experiences with some of the inherent problems in Medicaid’s home care services, Ellyn Sternfield, a health-care attorney with Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo PC in Washington, told Bloomberg BNA Sept. 19.Traditional Medicaid home health services have been plagued by hundreds of cases every year involving unscrupulous individuals conspiring with friends or family members to secure Medicaid payments for unnecessary or never-provided home care services, Sternfield said.
Source: HHS Watchdog to Probe Medicaid Health Homes Program / Bloomberg BNA