WASHINGTON, D.C. – CMS announced on May 13 that it is implementing a six-month, nationwide moratoria on new Medicare enrollment for hospices and home health agencies (HHAs). According to the official press release, the moratoria will allow CMS to temporarily halt the influx of new providers into these high-risk categories—a key source of fraudulent activity.

“We’ve seen systemic and deeply troubling fraud in the hospice and home health space, with bad actors exploiting some of our most vulnerable Medicare patients and stealing money from the American taxpayer,” said Mehmet Oz, M.D., CMS administrator. “Today we’re shutting the door on fraud—preventing new bad actors from entering Medicare while we aggressively identify, investigate, and remove those already exploiting them. This is about protecting patients, restoring integrity, and safeguarding taxpayer dollars.”

“From a very preliminary review, it looks similar to the one [moratorium] announced earlier this year for DMEPOS suppliers,” confirmed Jeffrey S. Baird, Esq., Brown & Fortunato, Amarillo, Tex.

During the six-month moratoria, CMS will intensify targeted investigations, deploy advanced data analytics, and accelerate the removal of hospice and HHA providers from the Medicare program that are suspected of committing fraud.

The release states: This nationwide approach will also eliminate the ability of bad actor operators to evade detection by simply shifting across state lines. In addition, the moratoria will apply to all applications for initial Medicare enrollment and certain changes in majority ownership, which are frequently used to obscure control by bad actors. The moratoria will not impact current enrollments, and existing providers can continue to deliver services to Medicare beneficiaries.