OPINION — Fraud in home health and hospice care is real, and it hurts everyone who touches this industry — patients, who deserve care they can trust, taxpayers, who fund the Medicare program, and the honest providers, whose reputations are dragged down every time a bad actor makes headlines.
We have spent years pushing for more effective oversight, and we will continue to do so.
On May 13, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services imposed a six-month nationwide freeze on new Medicare enrollment for home-health agencies and hospice providers. The action sends an unmistakable signal: Washington is watching, and it is acting. Urgency has its place, but urgency without precision has consequences, and those consequences have landed on providers who did nothing wrong, and the individuals and families they serve.