Hospice Insights: The Law and Beyond Meg Pekarske

As member substitutions become an increasingly common method of affiliation for nonprofit hospices, hospices may encounter various opportunities for affiliation. Join Husch Blackwell’s Meg Pekarske and Adam Royal as they discuss what has—and hasn’t—worked in member substitutions, and issues to spot early in a transaction to determine its feasibility.

In this episode, Meg Pekarske is joined by Jody Rudman, the leader of Husch Blackwell’s White Collar, Internal Investigations & Compliance group, where they explore the enforcement and privacy issues surrounding artificial intelligence. Jody shares insights on the most common types of cybersecurity issues and how to prevent them. A cutting-edge conversation to help ground you in this emerging area.

Recovery Audit Contractors (RACs) have played a relatively limited role in the hospice space, often overshadowed by UPICs, SMRCs, and Center for Program Integrity audits. In this episode, Husch Blackwell’s Meg Pekarske and Bryan Nowicki talk about a recent wave of record requests issued by a RAC named Performant that focus on GIP and Continuous Home Care, and some ideas about how to respond.

Hospice Targeted Probe and Educate reviews (TPEs) continue to be initiated all over the country. That means it’s time to check in with Husch Blackwell's Hospice team on the latest developments. In this episode, Meg Pekarske and Bryan Nowicki discuss a new TPE topic and describe both the time-tested and emerging strategies hospices can use to respond to these reviews.

It came as a surprise to our team when we learned that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) was ending the hospice component of Value-Based Insurance Design (VBID) on December 31, 2024. Upon learning this, Husch Blackwell’s Meg Pekarske contacted Chris Comeaux, the president and CEO of Teleios Collaborative Network, to see if he wanted to share his thoughts on this unexpected turn of events and what may be on the horizon. This is a forward-looking conversation where we explore how the lessons learned can galvanize new advocacy on the best ways to care for patients with advanced illnesses.

Five years ago, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) initiated audits of 13 hospices and published its findings in 13 separate reports. It appears that the OIG is at it again, as multiple hospices recently have received “engagement letters” from the OIG with directions to produce medical records for 100 randomly selected claims. In this episode, Husch Blackwell’s Meg Pekarske and Bryan Nowicki discuss these OIG audits, strategies for responding, and their implications for the hospice community.