On January 31, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released its 2014 Work Plan. The plan identifies five areas related to the operation of nursing homes which the OIG intends to monitor closely this fiscal year: 1) Medicare Part A billing practices; 2) Billing patterns for Medicare Part B services; 3) State agency verification of deficiency corrections; 4) Program for national background checks for employees; and 5) Hospitalizations of residents for manageable and preventable conditions.

Of these five areas, Medicare Part A billing practices is the only one that did not appear in OIG’s 2013 Work Plan. Consequently, industry experts are expecting the OIG to place particular importance on the review of this area. The 2014 Work Plan references reports of nursing homes inappropriately increasing codes for therapy and mentions that 25% of nursing homes’ Part A claims in 2009 were erroneous, resulting in $1.5 billion of Medicare over-payments.