Physician offices sometimes feel immune to the regulatory pressures imposed by federal and state authorities. I’ve heard expressions such as “we are such a small office” or ” we deal with such small dollars” to excuse lax or ill-informed billing practices. The solution is to create an office compliance plan, to make sure your office completes all billing correctly.
Here, from the Office of Inspector General, is a report of one small physician’s office that the OIG did investigate, resulting in a $650,000 settlement. Note the investigation arose from another investigation where a doctor was banned from all federal healthcare programs for 15-years.
“12-18-2014 OIG Enforcement Case
A Medical Practice, Doctor in New York Settle False and Fraudulent Claims Case
Jennan Comprehensive Medical, P.C. (Jennan) – a medical group practice in New York – and its owner, Henry Chen, M.D., entered into a $694,887.02 settlement agreement with the Office of Inspector General (OIG) for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, effective December 18, 2014. The settlement resolves allegations that from May 15, 2008 to December 31, 2013, Jennan and Dr. Chen knowingly submitted or caused to be submitted false and/or fraudulent claims to Medicare for physical therapy services. Specifically, OIG alleged that these claims were false and/or fraudulent for one or more of the following reasons: 1) physical therapy services were not provided or supervised by the rendering provider; 2) group services were billed as one-on-one provider-patient physical therapy services; 3) services were performed by unqualified individuals; and/or 4) claims for time-based physical therapy services did not accurately reflect the actual time spent performing the services. Senior Counsels David M. Blank, Tamara T. Forys, and Lauren E. Marziani, along with Paralegal Specialist Mariel Filtz, represented OIG.
This case developed as a result of OIG’s prior investigation of Joseph A. Raia, M.D., a former Jennan employee. Dr. Raia entered into a settlement with OIG on February 11, 2014 for $1.5 million and agreed to be excluded from participating in Federal health care program for a minimum of 15 years.”
Posted by Matt Kinley, Esq.