Several senators have introduced the “STOP” Act (S. 975), which targets Medicare waste, fraud and abuse.
Sens Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) and John Cornyn (R-Tex.) joined several colleagues in announcing The Seniors and Taxpayers Obligation Protection (STOP) Act, which is designed to reduce the billions of dollars lost to waste and fraud every year by creating additional prevention and detection systems for the Medicare program.
The bill is co-sponsored by Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), David Vitter (R-La.), Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Bob Corker (R-Tenn).
The act is designed to give the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Department of Health and Human Services and Social Security Administration more tools to prevent waste, fraud and abuse in the Medicare system.
“We applaud the Senators’ efforts to protect patients, seniors and taxpayers, and we appreciate the fact that provisions in this bill reflect recommendations from our association’s Medicare Anti-Fraud Legislative Action Plan,” said American Association for Homecare President Tyler Wilson.
Earlier this year, AAHomecare urged Congress to adopt the Medicare Anti-Fraud Legislative Plan, which outlines steps to stop waste, fraud, and abuse in Medicare’s home medical equipment (HME) sector.
The STOP Act mirrors some recommendations from AAHomecare's Anti-Fraud Legislative Plan, such as mandates for:
- pre-enrollment site visits and unannounced site visits for new home medical equipment providers;
- site visits for current providers that are re-enrolling, as well as an unannounced site visit after re-enrollment;
- real-time data analysis (like that used to identify credit card charging patterns) to identify and investigate unusual billing and ordering practices that could indicate fraud or abuse; and
- checks to ensure that the provider is qualified and enrolled to bill the type of item or service that is on the claim for reimbursement.