We are pleased to announce that the question sets for the 2011 OIG Work Plan for Hospitals are now available! 

The new question sets are:

• Non-IPPS Hospital Payments for Nonphysician Outpatient Services
• Medicare Excessive Payments
• Hospital Occupational Mix Data Used to Calculate Inpatient Hospital Wage Indexes
• Early Implementation of Medicare’s Policy for Hospital-Acquired Conditions
• Hospital Reporting for Adverse Events
• Hospital Reporting for Restraint and Seclusion Related Deaths
• Medicare Brachytherapy Reimbursement
• Hospitals Compliance With Medicare CoP Intensity-Modulated and Image-Guided Radiation Therapy Services
• Medicare Inpatient and Outpatient Hospital Claims for Replacement of Medical Device
• Hospital Inpatient Outlier Payments

Recently, the IRS released a final report on its 2006 nonprofit hospital study, which analyzes community benefit and compensation reporting by almost 500 hospitals.  The IRS found that the average and median percentages of total revenues reported as spent on aggregate community benefit expenditures were 9% and 6%, respectively, for the overall group. AHA President and CEO Rich Umbdenstock said, “Today’s IRS report reaffirms that hospitals of all types are providing a healthy mix of care and services to the communities they serve.

"California's high court ruled that emergency-room patients can no longer be billed by doctors and hospitals for care that isn't fully paid by their health plans. The court on Thursday struck down a practice known as 'balance billing,' in which doctors and hospitals seek to collect from patients any amounts that their managed-care plans refuse to pay.

On December 12, 2008, CMS published notice in the Federal Register that it had submitted a revised Disclosure of Financial Relationships Report ("DFRR") audit form to the Office of Management and Budget for review ("OMB").  The DFRR form will be used by CMS to identify arrangements that potentially may not be in compliance with the physician self-referral statute/regulations and to identify examples and areas of noncompliance that may assist CMS in f