If I had discovered this fraud before the government audit, I would have investigated the allocations, checked the billing and coding of medical claims for billing and coding errors, I would have looked for possible up coding, unbundling…
In order to insure successful and systematic reaping of the bills set out, many not-for-profit hospitals erected chillingly uncharitable collection policies. According to the Cases in Healthcare Finance textbook, “not-for-profit hospitals often intimidate and harass uninsured patients through ‘goon-like and predatory collection tactics that frequently scar the patient for life…” (Ch.5, p.238). Frightening consequences awaited patients who could not, in a restricted time period, pay their inflated bill. The insurance providers would often seize a patient’s key assets like cars or threaten to foreclose on their houses, turning a minor medical procedure into a life-collapsing nightmare. Moreover, in a WSJ article published in the early 2000’s, investigative reporters concluded that the health care providers in question “did not tell the uninsured about charity care, did not offer charity care, did not discount bills to the uninsured and aggressively pursued payment”.…
Week 3 DB Billing 2 Discuss different types of benefits available to veterans and their family members, giving specific details and examples. Active duty service members and their families can receive health benefits through the following TRICARE plans listed below. To be eligible the uniformed service member (sponsor) and their families (beneficiaries) must be enrolled in the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System (DEERS) TRICARE deductibles renew on OCT 1st. Patient responsibility is referred to as “cost share”.…
The IG MPI Investigations Division conducts investigations of Medicaid providers regarding allegations of Fraud, Waste and Abuse in the Medicaid program. Referrals can come from: • Medicaid provider complaints. • Self-Initiated referrals based on information obtained from data queries, sister agencies, provider and community outreach or other external sources. • Financial audits which determine funds were not used as intended or which identify overpayments and disallowed costs.…
Also sourcing from Healthcarebusinesstech.com it is estimated that 80% of medical billing contains medical errors so readers you may want to check your medical…
John Derek Haines, Forefather Of Addiction Canada Charged With Fraud For Hiring Fake Doctors Most medical providers are law-abiding, who work hard towards achieving improvement in their patients' health. However, a few like John Haines, Forefather of Addiction Canada, want to illegally increase the size of their bank accounts. The most talk about fraud of the time came in to the media lime light when the Ontario Provincial Police charged John Haines, the owner of a renowned chain of addiction treatment centers with cheating patients of up to $6.1 million. People choose addiction centers because these centers provide hope.…
Furthermore although not discussed in this case the other relevant facts including the billing fraud with regard to the length of the procedures, does speak to the fact of a current of underlying fraud which does lead to intent. In order to avoid the appearance of inducements, each physician should bill Medicare directly for their services, eliminating Dr. Graber from the equation and preventing the appearance of fraudulent…
A chargemaster, also known as a charge description master (CDM), is a hospital’s collection of all items that the hospital can bill to any payers, patients, or facilities, such as insurance companies. The chargemaster is usually organized by departments, and each department is given a numeric code. According to Iris Stone’s article “The Chargemaster: What’s Really Behind Those Hospital Bills,” hospitals do not have uniform guidelines for setting and changing prices on the items on the chargemaster, so each hospital’s administration makes any decisions regarding the chargemaster. The prices on a hospital’s chargemaster may be varied due to several different details, such as costs of new technologies and other hospital-specific operational costs. Chargemasters should be updated at least on a quarterly basis, but may be updated more periodically in accordance with CMS guideline or other events.…
There is an issue with the overspending of health care as it is, but to compromise the care which is being received by performing fraud and abusing the laws is ethically wrong. I believe that Dr. S. and Dr. V. knowingly interpreted the law into their own definitions resulting into…
The practice of double billing is unethical it is at heart theft and as such illegal. The act violates the ethical principles of justice and fidelity, when a patient is seen there is an expectation that the doctor will properly bill them and provide services for in good faith for the agreed upon amount. TO double bill violates this trust, and constitutes breaking an agreement made between the doctor and the patient. To double bill medicaid is also unjust in that it removes from a system that is deigned to provide for the well-fare of a segment of society in this case the elderly. The funds taken constitute either less services being provided or the need to acquire further funds through practices such as increased taxes or co-pays.…
Downcoding Is a Sign of Potential Fraud Downcoding involves assigning a medical diagnosis, treatment, or symptom using a generic classification instead of using the appropriately detailed one. For example, with the implementation of ICD-10, medical codes now have 7 characters. All seven characters are required to classify any item on the patient record in appropriate detail. It is possible, however, for the coder to only use the first three to six characters instead of the full seven.…
Accounts Receivable are monies due for services or goods provided to an individual. As stated in Pearson's Medical Assisting in Chapter 18, page 407, the seven step billing cycle begins with a) the patient receiving service, and g) ending when payments due from the patient and insurance payers are received and credited to the patient/s account/s. These steps include the b) the patient's co-pay, and the deductible and/or co-insurance if applicable. c) the provider then bills insurance; d) office receives insurance payment ; e) office bills patient, or not, depending on whether the provider has a contract with payer or not. f) if applicable, patient makes payment for the difference of the cost and the allowable rate from the payer, exclusive…
On the other hand, the acts of Blanka Krizek were a blatant disregard of the law, as she falsified billing documents. She had billed for procedures that clearly did not occur, as the patient was not in the office for that length of time. This was easy to prove with the timestamps of procedures and incoming…
Patient abuse in the healthcare setting occurs quite often. Healthcare professionals and caregivers have an ethical responsibility to their patients to prevent, detect, and stop patient abuse from happening. Unfortunately, as in the example provided by this case study, it is often by the hands of those who patients entrust most with their care that the abuse is committed.…
Healthcare fraud is becoming an immense problem in today’s society. When a health care provider, health suppliers, and private health companies purposely bill Medicare or Medicaid for supplies or services that were not given it is considered healthcare fraud. For example another form of fraud is when a person uses another person’s Medicare/Medicaid card…