Viemed Healthcare Inc VMD

My email to OIG

[donmayne]

Dear OIG

Below is the text of an online submission that I made to the Department of Justice concerning a troubling report issued by the OIG.

 

"I recently read a report from the Office of the Inspector General that will cause people witih COPD to die and their health care costs to rise.  The report was conducted from the lens of a financial audit but fails to appreciate a significant shift in medical knowledge about the benefits of non-invasive ventilators (NIV).  The report concluded that there was overbilling as a result of the use of NIVs. At this point, the report could have taken two approaches.  it could have looked at medical evidence and decided that CMS billing codes should be revised or that an independent medical study about the benefits of NIVs should be conducted.  Instead it simply extrapolated its accounting conclusion to all billings and to seek the loudest headline.  People will die as a result of the setbacks to the positive shift in medical treatment of COPD.  In addition the report will force more people with COPD back into costly hospital treatment rather than being treated at home by health professionals.  The OIG (Amy J. Frontz Deputy Inspector General for Audit Services) sought headlines instead of the more responsible route of seeking adjustments in CMS billing codes.  The report does include the response of the audited company but the OIG preferred the headline grabbing route rather than the medically responsible route of taking their findings and working with CMS to adjust its billing codes in light of shifting medical knowledge favoring NIVs.  This report will cause people to die and health care costs to rise.  This is not the professionalism that I want from the OIG."