On Wednesday, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a six-month moratorium on Medicare enrollment in home health and hospice, effective immediately.

The moratoria will apply to all applications for initial Medicare enrollment as well as to certain changes in majority ownership, which are “frequently used to obscure control by bad actors,” and may be extended in six-month increments if CMS deems it necessary.

CMS called Medicare home health and hospice “high-risk categories” and 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,” CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz said in a statement. “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.”

Current enrollments will not be impacted, CMS said, and existing providers can continue to deliver services to Medicare beneficiaries.

During the six-month moratoria, CMS plans to accelerate the removal of home health and hospice providers suspected of fraud from the Medicare program. The agency also said it would intensify targeted investigations and deploy advanced data analytics.

The nationwide moratoria will prevent bad actors from evading detection by shifting across state lines, according to CMS.

The National Alliance for Care at Home (the Alliance) responded to CMS’ announcement with a statement that enrollment moratoria do not distinguish between bad actors and compliant providers – and that the freezes with reduce competition, slow innovation and raise access-to-care concerns, particularly in rural areas.

“CMS must use data-driven, risk-based program integrity measures and focus resources on boots-on-the-ground surveys and enforcement of existing oversight mechanisms that root out the blatantly bad actors without potentially limiting patient access to care or punishing high-quality providers operating in good faith,” Jennifer Sheets, CEO of the Alliance, said in a statement.

Sheets has previously told Home Health Care News that program integrity is her top priority. The Alliance is among several industry organizations that have commended CMS’ focus on rooting out bad actors while calling for the agency to protect compliant providers.

“The overwhelming majority of providers serve their communities with integrity,” read signed by the Alliance, LeadingAge, LeadingAge California and the California Association for Health Services at Home (CAHSAH). “Any federal response must be carefully targeted to protect patients and preserve access to high-quality care from providers who have earned the trust of the families they serve.”

The home health and hospice moratoria follow the announcement of a six-month nationwide moratorium on certain durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics, and supplies (DMEPOS) companies.

“With three separate moratoria now in place, CMS has taken some of the most significant fraud prevention actions in the agency’s history,” CMS stated. “The moratoria are part of CMS’ ongoing efforts to stop fraud before it starts, using data-driven prevention and real-time enforcement as part of a coordinated federal approach.”

Rumors of a hospice moratorium circulated in the weeks ahead of the announcement – though the efficacy of a moratorium has been called into question. Hilary Loeffler, vice president of policy and regulatory affairs for the Alliance, said that moratoria do not necessarily solve the issue of hospice fraud.

“I don’t think broad enrollment moratoria work, quite frankly,” Loeffler previously told HHCN’s sister publication, Hospice News. “CMS still needs to go in and take action and clean up the fraud in those spaces, if that’s why they’re leveraging the enrollment moratorium.”

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