Perhaps human evolution someday will allow us to provide care to the souls of the deceased, but until that time comes, CMS had better shore up its claims allowances.
That's one way to read an OIG report released Oct. 7 that found about half a million dollars of improper payments attributed to the care of individuals who had passed away before the date of service on the bill. To be exact, OIG identifed $426,000 in "improper payments for 427 Medicare claims" between 2013 and 2015 related to claims for the deceased.
"Because medically necessary services cannot be provided after a Medicare beneficiary dies, payments for claims with dates of service after the individual’s death are generally considered improper payments," states the OIG in
its post-mortem report with a doozy of a name, "Medicare's policies and procedures identified almost all improper claims submitted for deceased individuals and recouped almost all improper payments made for these claims for January 2013 through October 2015."
The OIG identified an additional 1,047 claims that shivered its
psychokinetic energy (PKE) meters, as it were. These other questionable claims are tied to about $1.5 million in payments.
Needless to say, your best bet to stay off the OIG's PKE meters is to watch the dates of service on your claims. Access a summary
here, and the full report
here.