Partner Howard Young spoke to Hospice News about a request from the US Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to hospices for information about non-hospice spending and utilization of continuous home care, general inpatient care (GIP), and inpatient respite care. Howard said several things could have influenced care utilization rates in recent years—including the COVID-19 pandemic, which made it difficult to get patients into facilities.
“The second is just what the effect of audits has been,” Howard said.
“If you’re a hospice not providing a lot of GIP or not a lot of continuous home care, and then you start providing a lot more — you’re probably putting yourself at much higher risk for being selected for an audit.”