Bass, Berry & Sims attorney Matt Curley outlined the enforcement risk for long-term care providers associated with fraud during COVID-19 pandemic. Even before the public health crisis, long-term care providers were facing increased scrutiny from government regulators fighting healthcare fraud.
For those providers that accepted financial assistance from the government, Matt recommends that “maintaining contemporaneous documentation supporting the need for the funding and detailing how the funds were used will be critical to rebutting assertions that certifications of necessity were inaccurate when made or that the funds themselves were misused.”
“There is no question that the current crisis will accelerate regulators’ focus on quality of care issues. Providers would be well served to monitor quality metrics and complaints regarding quality of care and work to address any identified shortcomings as proactively and fulsomely as possible,” Matt suggested.
The full article, “In the Face of Crisis, Enforcement Risk Looms for Long-Term Care Providers,” was published by McKnight’s Long-Term Care News on July 8 and is available online.