Upcoding - the practice of claiming payment for more expensive medical procedures than actually performed - is at the center of a Medicare and Medicaid fraud whistleblower suit against IPC The Hospitalist Company, which provides doctors to oversee inpatient care.
The suit makes the following key claims: (1) the company encouraged doctors to bill at the highest level regardless of the service performed and, (2) the company trained doctors to use the highest-cost billing codes
The whistleblower, Bijan Oughatiyan, a doctor who worked for IPC from 2003 to 2008 brought the suit under the federal False Claims Act, which allows whistleblowers to retain 15-25% of the monies recovered.
Source: Los Angeles Business Journal
Medicare and Medicaid fraud hurt everybody by driving up the costs of healthcare for everybody. Lexington, Kentucky Medicare and Medicaid fraud lawyer Robert Abell represents whistleblowers in suits to recovery monies paid out through Medicare or Medicaid fraud; contact him at 859-254-7076.
