Hospice Audit Series

Audits are a fact of life for hospices—it’s not a matter of “if” a hospice will be audited, but “when.” The alphabet soup of audits has expanded, from UPICs to SMRCs, CPIs, TPEs and more. With the hospice carve-in to Medicare Advantage, MAO audits will join the list. The recent pause in audits as a result of the COVID pandemic hints at increased activity as the pandemic wanes. In this series, Meg Pekarske and Bryan Nowicki of Husch Blackwell’s Hospice Audit team deconstruct the most recent developments in hospice audits, providing insight and guidance on the why, when and how of audits and—most importantly—what hospices can do about it.

Today's Episode: A Beginning and an End from CMS - TPE Resumes While QIC Demonstration Ends

In today’s episode, Husch Blackwell’s Meg Pekarske talks with team members Bryan Nowicki and Erin Burns about two recent developments in the hospice audit arena. First, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that Targeted Probe and Educate (TPE) audits would resume on September 1. Second, on December 31, 2021, CMS’s popular Qualified Independent Contractor (QIC) Telephone Demonstration is set to end. Meg, Bryan and Erin share insights on TPE and the QIC Demonstration as well as potential actions for hospices to take related to both.