Kindred Praises CMS for Halting Further Implementation of Home Health Pre-Claim Review Demonstration
April 03 2017 - 4:00PM
Business Wire
Company Thanks U.S. Senators Rubio and Nelson
and the Florida Congressional Delegation for Advocating to Preserve
Patient Access to Quality Home Health Services
Kindred Healthcare, Inc. (“Kindred” or the “Company”) (NYSE:KND)
today announced its appreciation for the halting of a home health
Pre-Claim Review Demonstration (“PCRD”) in Florida and Illinois.
Kindred at Home, a division of Kindred, is the nation’s largest and
most geographically diversified home health organization, offering
a wide-range of services to patients and clients in their homes or
places of residence.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) were
running the PCRD program in Illinois, with planned implementation
in Florida on April 1. Under the new demonstration, home health
providers would be required to gain approval of physician-ordered
services from a non-clinical third party government contractor to
ensure Medicare payment for delivered care services. Earlier this
year, U.S. Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Bill Nelson (D-FL) led
an effort to send a letter, also signed by a bipartisan group of 25
U.S. Representatives from Florida, to U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services Secretary Tom Price, which requested “the agency to
replace PCRD with a more effective program integrity initiative
that better targets fraud.”
On Friday, March 31, CMS announced that it would pause the
program, effective immediately.
“We are pleased that CMS Administrator Seema Verma has chosen to
suspend the program while improvements are made, which we believe
will protect patient care,” stated Benjamin A. Breier, President
and Chief Executive Officer of the Company. “On behalf of home
health patients, caregivers and other providers in Florida and
nationwide, we thank Senators Rubio and Nelson and the members of
the Florida congressional delegation for their leadership in
advocating to replace the troubled PCRD program with a more
effective integrity initiative that better targets fraud.”
Concluded Mr. Breier, “Kindred fully supports appropriate
program integrity efforts that address fraud and improper payments
while preserving patient access and high-quality outcomes. We are
committed to working with CMS and Congressional leaders to develop
an initiative that effectively targets improper payments without
impeding patient access. As healthcare providers, we believe that
we share in the responsibility to combat Medicare fraud and protect
taxpayer funds.”
About Kindred Healthcare
Kindred Healthcare, Inc., a top-90 private employer in the
United States, is a FORTUNE 500 healthcare services company based
in Louisville, Kentucky with annual revenues of approximately
$7.2 billion. At December 31, 2016, Kindred through
its subsidiaries had approximately 100,100 employees providing
healthcare services in 2,654 locations in 46 states, including 82
long-term acute care hospitals, 19 inpatient rehabilitation
hospitals, 91 nursing centers, 17 sub-acute units, 635 Kindred at
Home home health, hospice and non-medical home care sites of
service, 102 inpatient rehabilitation units (hospital-based) and
contract rehabilitation service businesses which served 1,708
non-affiliated sites of service. Ranked as one of Fortune
magazine’s Most Admired Healthcare Companies for eight years,
Kindred’s mission is to promote healing, provide hope, preserve
dignity and produce value for each patient, resident, family
member, customer, employee and shareholder we serve. For more
information, go to www.kindredhealthcare.com. You can also follow
us on Twitter and Facebook.
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Kindred Healthcare, Inc.Susan E. Moss, 502-596-7296Senior Vice
President, Marketing and Communications
Kindred Healthcare (NYSE:KND)
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