LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — Doctors and hospice providers in the Las Vegas Valley are praising the sweeping move by the Nevada Health Authority to curb bad actors that cause patient neglect.
Friday afternoon, the Nevada Health Authority announced “a temporary pause on new state licenses for hospice and home-health providers and a moratorium on new enrollments for Nevada Medicaid.”
The status continues until state officials can validate and confirm “legitimacy” of current providers; the moratorium will be in effect for at least six months upon federal approval, a statement said.
Since the last Nevada Legislative Session, doctors and providers have called for mandated hospice care standards after numerous patients sought transfers to other facilities after severe neglect.
Dr. Timothy Beckett of Unified Hospice Care also wrote to lawmakers, last session, speaking out about patients who sought transfers to his center: the patients at other facilities were not given medication, proper medical equipment, and lacked care.
“We’ve had patients wanting to switch to our hospice because they were signed up for a hospice and hadn’t even seen a nurse for two weeks. There are horrible things that go on,” Beckett tells FOX5, calling efforts from the state long overdue.
After a similar moratorium enacted by California in 2022 to curb Medicare abuse and fraud, many of those bad actors simply moved to other states; non-profit Nathan Adelson Hospice reported a 400% increase in hospice care providers statewide. There are 300 providers here in Clark County, according to President and CEO Karen Rubel.
Rubel explains the extent of fraud from research, including home healthcare patients who were signed up for hospice and didn’t know it. “When we really dug into the information, there were multiple hospice companies registered at the same address… when we hear that people have never seen a nurse, they haven’t gotten their medications, those are big red flags,” she said.
“That’s the mindset: people are looking at the Medicare reimbursement as a way to make money and not provide good care,” Rubel said.
The non-profit pushed for the passage of Assembly Bill 161 to mandate standards for care and certification; Rubel said the law needs more “teeth,” and advocates will push for change, next session.
The non-profit created a website, ChoosingHospice.org, to help families navigate the process and ask the right questions.
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