Qui Tam

South Florida Company Bilks Medicare Out of $170 Million

By Marcella Auerbach

R&I Billing was charged with fraudulently billing Medicare $170 million for infusions of HIV drugs. The scheme worked as follows: “From roughly October 2002 through April 2006, HIV clinics in South Florida serviced by R&I Billing allegedly provided bills to Medicare that indicated patients were being injected with excessive amounts of HIV medications?Based on claims filed byR&I Billing, Medicare paid more than $100 million for these fraudulent services” according to a joint statement issued by the Department of Justice and Health and Human Services.

Medicare spending in 2006 totaled $40 billion for the care of 43 million elderly and disabled Americans. Infusion therapy provides medicines intravenously outside of a hospital or nursing home for many such beneficiaries. There are approximately 1,200 providers of infusion therapy in the United States.

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Full post as published by Medicare Fraud 101 on August 28, 2007 (boomark / email).