OIG produces home health fraud prevention video
Preventing fraud, waste and abuse before it can happen is a priority for the OIG. Collaborating with our partners across the health care delivery system helps us do that.
The OIG produced a video to educate personal care attendants about the most common errors to avoid. Personal care attendants — also known as community attendants, personal care assistants and direct service workers — work hard to help people with disabilities live independently in their own homes. However, some attendants do not follow Medicaid rules or provide quality care. The most frequent Medicaid allegations to the OIG Fraud Hotline involve attendant care.
The newly produced video is part of the OIG’s ongoing efforts to proactively address potential fraud, waste and abuse within the home health care industry. In 2021, the OIG began producing education articles for the Texas Association of Home Care and Hospice, covering our investigations, how to report suspected waste or wrongdoing to the OIG Fraud Hotline, and billing Medicaid through the electronic visit verification system or EVV.
The video reminds attendants that they must personally log their time in the EVV system. No one else can clock in or out of the EVV system on someone else’s behalf – that’s fraud. Attendants can clock in and out only when the client in their care is living in the client’s home; attendants may not log hours in EVV when a client is hospitalized or at an adult day care. Attendants cannot share their pay with the person in their care as an incentive to dishonestly say the attendants were working when they were not. The video also reminds attendants that they may not accept gifts or money to persuade the person in their care to switch home health care agencies.
The OIG investigates suspected violations in home health care services. If fraud is discovered, the OIG may impose penalties, require reimbursement of misappropriated funds, and disallow future employment with Medicaid clients.
The video is now available on the OIG website, both in English and with Spanish subtitles. Please share the video’s fraud prevention message with any colleagues you may have in the home health industry. If you suspect fraud in the home health industry, visit ReportTexasFraud.com or call 800-436-6184 to make a report.