By Dan Christensen
FloridaBulldog.org
Taxpayer-supported Broward Health offered Thursday to pay nearly $70 million to settle a four-year-old federal investigation into allegations of massive Medicare and Medicaid fraud.
By Karla Bowsher
BrowardBulldog.org
The newest face of Broward Health hangs shoulder pads around his neck instead of a stethoscope. But like a doctor, he earns six figures a year from the tax-subsidized public health care system.
By Karla Bowsher
BrowardBulldog.org
Broward Health faces $100 million in potential civil liability due to an ongoing federal anti-kickback investigation into whether it submitted false Medicare and Medicaid claims. “We’re looking at, I’ve heard, up to $100 million,” said Broward Health Commissioner David Di Pietro.
The nation’s top health information technology official has launched an internal review to determine if electronic health records are prompting some doctors and hospitals to overbill Medicare.
Dr. Farzad Mostashari, the Obama administration’s National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, said in an interview Monday afternoon that his policy-setting committee of experts would examine the issue and make recommendations on how to address it.
HHS headquarters in Washington, D.C. Photo: Matt Bisanz/Wikimedia Commons
Thousands of doctors across the country are billing Medicare for routine medical care at rates far above their peers, potentially costing taxpayers tens of millions of dollars in overcharges, according to a new government report.
The audit released Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General stopped short of accusing the high-billing doctors of ripping off the government health plan for the elderly. But it stated that Medicare’s payment scales for doctors have been “vulnerable to fraud and abuse” in recent years.