Home Health & Hospice Week

Lack of doc orders, documentation failures head the list. More details about the charges leveled against Woburn, MA-based PolyMedica Corp. and two of its subsidiaries, Liberty Medical Supply and Liberty Home Pharmacy, have been revealed.
 
PolyMedica recently announced it would pay $35 million to settle allegations that it and its Port St. Lucie, FL-based subsidiaries engaged in unspecified billing improprieties (see Eli's HCW, Vol. XIII, No. 40, p. 318).
 
Now the U.S. Department of Justice says the allegations involved improper billing for various diabetic and nebulizer products, according to a Dec. 2 DOJ announcement. The Liberty units violated the False Claims Act when they didn't obtain a signed doctor's order or prescription for the diabetic and nebulizer products, the government charges.
 
And the companies failed to properly document excessive treatment volumes, the oral and written orders for shipping these products and Medicare beneficiaries' approval to bill Medicare on their behalf, the feds claim. The settlement also calls for PolyMedica and its subsidiaries to comply with a corporate integrity agreement.
 
The settlement resolves the DOJ's claims in two whistleblower suits private citizens filed in 2001 against the company. But exactly how much of the settlement the whistleblowers will receive has yet to be determined, the Justice Department says.
 
PolyMedica admits no wrongdoing in the settlement.