Inpatient Audit Storm Clouds

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) never rests.

After taking on Medicare Advantage organizations and aggressive risk adjustment coding practices from 2023-2025, the sights of the nation’s regulatory watchdog have shifted.

The new target? Acute care hospitals and inpatient admissions. Plus some other outpatient odds and ends.

This new report complementary of Norwood examines three very recent OIG hospital audits and almost $35M of total recommended takebacks: Sarasota Memorial ($12.1M estimated overpayment), Lehigh Valley ($17.8M) and Jefferson Regional Medical Center ($4.7M).

We cover not just the high-level findings, but commonalities across all three audits, a few clinical examples of inadequate documentation as cited the OIG, and end with a blueprint for reducing your audit vulnerability.

Because we expect more audits in the coming months.

Remember, the OIG never rests.

Norwood is an industry leader in IP and OP coding audits. To learn more or partner, contact us anytime at consulting@norwood.com.

You may also like

,

August Audit Heat webinar slides

Attached are the slides from the Sept. 29, 2026 webinar “August Audit Heat” as presented by SVP…

October 7, 2026
Learn More
, ,

Where Are We With Sepsis?

By Brian Murphy Sepsis is deadly, prevalent, and expensive to treat, and therefore capturing it in documentation…

September 29, 2026
Learn More
, ,

Coding in the Gray: Why Human Judgment Still Matters (part 2 of a 2-part series)

There is a LOT of talk these days about automation. Autonomous coding solutions that can code with…

August 31, 2026
Learn More
,

Inpatient Audit Storm Clouds

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) never rests. After taking on Medicare Advantage organizations and aggressive risk…

July 28, 2026
Learn More

Coding in the Gray: Why Human Judgment Still Matters (part 1 of a 2-part series)

There is a LOT of talk these days about automation. Autonomous coding solutions that can code with near-perfect accuracy—and no human intervention. Providers picking a code from a drop-down menu, enabled by…

June 18, 2026
Learn More

The State of Physician Queries

This new special report includes analysis of the new 2026 ACDIS/AHIMA query practice brief, as well as:…

May 21, 2026
Learn More