Is this legal?

[kaleeh]

I work for a hospice company that was purchased this summer by a larger healthcare group which also owns many nursing homes in our area. Upper management is requiring those nursing homes that they own submit to us (hospice) a list of patients that they feel might qualify for hospice. This has been a push since they bought us about six months ago. Of course, in theory, the patient's and families have a choice as to which hospice they chose if they met criteria, however, in reality these families are actually told "well, there are other hospices but we always use XYZ Hospice." Is this legal? Ethical? Medicare fraud?

In addition, this company changed our benefits when they acquired us on July 1st, however, we were just notified of these changes this past week. This specifically affects paid time off which we though we were accruing at 10 hours per month when in fact, we haven't been accruing any.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

[LydiaNN]

I work for a hospice company that was purchased this summer by a larger healthcare group which also owns many nursing homes in our area. Upper management is requiring those nursing homes that they own submit to us (hospice) a list of patients that they feel might qualify for hospice. This has been a push since they bought us about six months ago. Of course, in theory, the patient's and families have a choice as to which hospice they chose if they met criteria, however, in reality these families are actually told "well, there are other hospices but we always use XYZ Hospice." Is this legal? Ethical? Medicare fraud?

In addition, this company changed our benefits when they acquired us on July 1st, however, we were just notified of these changes this past week. This specifically affects paid time off which we though we were accruing at 10 hours per month when in fact, we haven't been accruing any.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

I don't know about the hospice question... it sounds as if it might be legal but not very ethical.

The accumulation of time off though? I'd do some research on that and find out if its legal. That's a week and a half vacation that you thought you had coming and you don't. Those would be fighting words for me!

[caliotter3]

Companies self refer all the time. They should let the clients and families know about alternatives but are under no obligation to promote their competition. However, it sounds as if you and your coworkers have been misled about your benefits. You should seek the advice of the Labor Board about this.