OIG Surety Bonds
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Here We Go Again!
The OIG Recommends CMS to Require Surety Bonds for Home Health Agencies
The Balanced Budget Act of 1997 established a surety bond requirement for home health agencies. To implement the Balanced Budget Act requirement, CMS promulgated a final rule on January 5, 1998 requiring each home health agency to obtain a surety bond that is the greater of $50,000 or 15 percent of the annual amount paid to the home health agency by Medicare. In 1998 both the House of Representatives and the Senate issued joint resolutions expressing disapproval with CMS's rule. This was never voted upon, but CMS postponed the implementation dates indefinitely.
The OIG report showed from 2007 to 2011 CMS has $354,345,843 in uncollected overpayments from home health agencies. They stated if all home health agencies were required to maintain a $50,000 surety bond CMS could have collected an additional $39,103,854. They do not provide any information on the cost to the home health agencies to obtain these $50,000 surety bonds or proposed any adjustments in home health Medicare payments. It looks like another unfunded Medicare mandate.
To give a detailed explanation of this rather complicated issue we have created a FREE On-Demand Webinar. The On-Demand Webinar is available 24 hours per day 7 days a week.
To view the Free On-Demand please utilize the following link:
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