According to a recently unsealed complaint, Vitas, the largest U.S. Provider of hospice care, improperly enrolled and recertified patients that did not meet hospice requirements.  In order to receive hospice care under Medicare, a patient must be diagnosed by two doctors to have six months or less to live.  Patients who survive their life expectancy can remain in hospice care so long as a hospice doctor recertifies the diagnosis every 60 days.  A medical director for Vitas allegedly provided certifications for hundreds patients without examining the patients or reviewing their charts.  According to the complaint, Vitas also encouraged hospices to enroll more patients with dementia, “general debility” or other similar diagnoses.

Although the average length of stay for Medicare hospice patients in 2008 was 83 days, 22 percent of Vitas’s patients had stayed in hospice care for over 500 days.  Shortly after an audit by Medicare in 2007, Vitas discharged 295 live patients, compared with only 64 in previous years.

Read the entire article, “Whistleblower Accuses Chemed Unit of Medicare HMO Conspiracy”