Senior Senate Finance Committee member Chuck Grassley, along with committee chairman Max Baucus, released a report yesterday claiming that tactics used by major for-profit home health companies were used to game Medicare.

Baucus and Grassley began an investigation into practices at Amedisys, LHC Group, Gentiva and Almost Family in response to a 2010 media report that the home health companies took advantage of the Medicare therapy payment system by providing unnecessary care.

The Senate report claims that therapists were encouraged to target the most profitable number of therapy visits, even when patients didn’t need them, and showed concentrated numbers of therapy visits at or just above the point at which a bonus payment was triggered by Medicare. To see the full report, click here.