Another medical supply company has been held accountable for improper Medicare billing. According to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice:
A Mississippi medical equipment and supply company will pay about $1.8 million to settle claims that it improperly billed Medicare, U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance announced.
The payment of $1,771,522 by Pinnacle Medical Solutions, based in Southaven, Miss., settles a lawsuit that claimed the company violated the False Claims Act by filing claims for payment with Medicare for insulin pump kits and blood glucose test strips that were medically unnecessary or otherwise improper.
The settlement agreement was filed today in U.S. District Court.
“The resolution of this lawsuit means nearly two million taxpayer dollars that were used to reimburse false claims by Pinnacle Medical Solutions have been recovered,” Vance said. “I encourage anyone with information about potential wrongdoing to come forward and help us stop fraud and abuse in our health care services,” she said.
From September 2006 through May 2009, according to the settlement agreement, Pinnacle submitted false claims to Medicare and the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program for blood glucose monitoring strips and lancets that either were for more or different supplies than Pinnacle had shipped, for more supplies than had been ordered, and/or that lacked supporting documentation for the supplies.
The lawsuit against Pinnacle was filed as a whistleblower complaint in June 2009 by two employees of the company. A federal investigation that preceded the lawsuit resulted in Pinnacle refunding $236,204 to Medicare in July 2009. The payment agreed to in the settlement is in addition to that previous refund.
As a condition of the settlement, Pinnacle is also required to enter into a Corporate Integrity Agreement with the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, under which the company will be monitored for a period of five years to ensure that in the future it complies with all federal health care program rules.