“Hospitals increased their Medicare billing for the most severe inpatient stays, sparking concerns from a federal watchdog that facilities could be improperly charging the federal government.”
“The Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS’) Office of Inspector General (OIG) released a report Wednesday (PDF) that explored payments for severe inpatient stays from federal fiscal 2014 through 2019. The HHS watchdog found that stays at the highest severity level are susceptible to inappropriate billing practices such as upcoding…”
“The OIG recommends the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services take targeted reviews of hospital inpatient stays that are vulnerable to upcoding and the hospitals that are the worst offenders of the practice…” Read the full article here.
Source: OIG: Hospital stays getting more expensive for Medicare, raising upcoding concerns – By Robert King, February 25, 2021. Fierce Healthcare.
