April 15 is not only tax day this year. It’s also the day the Health and Human Services’ Office of the Inspector General will release a draft compliance program guidance designed to help nursing homes develop effective compliance programs.

The draft document, which will be posted on the OIG Web site and in the Federal Register, will be subjected to a 45-day comment period, according to OIG chief counsel Lewis Morris. The final version of the compliance guidance document is expected to be released sometime in the fall, he said.

In January, the OIG announced that it would seek comments and recommendations on changes to the compliance guidance document because of the many changes the nursing home industry had gone through since the document was originally issued in 2000. To view the draft document, visit http://www.oig.hhs.gov/fraud/complianceguidance.html#1.