Jun

03

OIG lists recommendations not fully implemented by HHS

By Compliance Monitor

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) failed to fully implement recommendations made by the Office of Inspector General (OIG), according to the OIG’s “Compendium of Unimplemented Office of Inspector General Recommendations”, released May 29.

• Modify payment policy for Medicare hospital bad debts (estimated savings $340 million)
• Reduce the rental period for Medicare home oxygen equipment (estimated savings $3.2 billion)
• Modify payments to managed care organizations (estimated savings $1.97 billion) 
• Extend additional rebate payment provision to generic drugs (estimated savings $966 million)
• Limit enhanced payments to cost and require that Medicaid payments returned by public providers be used to offset the federal share (estimated savings $120 million)
• Ensure Medicaid reimbursement for brand-name and generic drugs accurately reflects pharmacy acquisition costs (estimated savings $1.08 billion for brand-name drugs and TBD for generic drugs)