Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

PHYSICIAN NOTES:

Medicare Strike Force Nails Physical Therapist Who Helped Overbill Medicare by $2.375 Million

Plus: CMS debuts new Medicare tool that helps you spell out confusing terms, enrollment information, and payment rules. The Medicare Strike Force has struck again, this time focusing on a Michigan-based physical therapist who pled guilty to conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud. The therapist faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for creating fictitious therapy files in which she documented physical and occupational therapy services to Medicare patients, even though she hadn't actually delivered the therapy. In total, the therapist collected over $127,000 for creating the false documentation, which allowed the home health agency that employed her to collect about $2.375 million from Medicare, according to a Jan. 25, 2010 Dept. of Justice news release. (Editor's note: To read the Dept. of Justice news release, visit: www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/January/10-crm-083.html.)
You’ve reached your limit of free articles. Already a subscriber? Log in.
Not a subscriber? Subscribe today to continue reading this article. Plus, you’ll get:
  • Simple explanations of current healthcare regulations and payer programs
  • Real-world reporting scenarios solved by our expert coders
  • Industry news, such as MAC and RAC activities, the OIG Work Plan, and CERT reports
  • Instant access to every article ever published in Revenue Cycle Insider
  • 6 annual AAPC-approved CEUs
  • The latest updates for CPT®, ICD-10-CM, HCPCS Level II, NCCI edits, modifiers, compliance, technology, practice management, and more

Other Articles in this issue of

Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

View All