"Upcoding" in Nursing Homes - A Different Kind of Nursing Home "Abuse"

By Thomas Waitt Pleasant, North Carolina Nursing Home Abuse, Neglect and Wrongful Death Attorney. This recent article in the Washington Post outlines the practice of "upcoding" in nursing homes, which means putting residents in ultra-high billing categories intended to be used for only 5% of residents needing highly specialized care and rehabilitation.  the numbers of residents in the ultra-high categories has quadrupled since the system was instituted over 10 years ago,  and the amount of waste and abuse could be in the  billions of dollars a year.  This billing program is specifically targeted in the new health care legislation changing 2 rules that experts said have been exploited by nursing homes to inflate bills.  One of the worst allegedly is North American Health Care (NAHC),  placing 64% of its residents in the highest category, despite that the national average is only 9%.  HCR ManorCare is another chain who allegedly abuses the system. I wonder whether the same could be happening in North Carolina nursing homes.