{"id":43148,"date":"2021-06-24T12:41:44","date_gmt":"2021-06-24T19:41:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=43148"},"modified":"2021-06-24T12:45:12","modified_gmt":"2021-06-24T19:45:12","slug":"feds-physicians-group-agreed-to-pay-750000-for-upcoding-medical-services","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=43148","title":{"rendered":"Feds: Physicians Group Agreed to Pay $750,000 for &#8220;Upcoding&#8221; Medical Services"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"node-title\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong style=\"font-size: 20px;\">EL PASO<\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"field field--name-field-pr-body field--type-text-long field--label-hidden\">\n<div class=\"field__items\">\n<div class=\"field__item even\">\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\">El Paso Ear, Nose &amp; Throat Associates (EPENT) has agreed to pay $750,000 to settle allegations that they violated the False Claims Act, officials announced Wednesday.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\">The violations occurred by billing Medicaid, Medicare and other federal healthcare programs by &#8220;upcoming&#8221; evaluation and management codes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/american-life-insurance-system-spawned-1700s\/medical-logo\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-2159\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-2159\" src=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Medical-Logo-300x230.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"230\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Medical-Logo-300x230.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Medical-Logo-45x35.jpg 45w, https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Medical-Logo.jpg 560w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>The government alleged that EPENT knowingly caused false claims to be submitted to federal healthcare programs by billing for services at a higher rate of reimbursement than they would be entitled to for the service actually provided. <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\">This scheme is commonly referred to as \u201cupcoding.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\">\u201cProviders who line their pockets by over-billing for medical care increase medical costs for all of us and drain critical funds from Medicare and other government health programs,\u201d said U.S. Attorney Ashley C. Hoff.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\"> <a href=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/feds-physicians-group-agreed-to-pay-750000-for-upcoding-medical-services\/download-1-32\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-43151\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-43151 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/download-1-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"345\" height=\"201\" \/><\/a>The Defense Health Agency (DHA) supports the delivery of TRICARE, the program that provides integrated, affordable, high-quality healthcare services to more than 9.6 million uniformed service members, retirees and their families. <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\">TRICARE was one of the government health programs that was defrauded in this case.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\">\u201cAny time the government is defrauded, it is unacceptable to the American taxpayer. The victims in this case have served or continue to serve our Nation, and also includes their family members. We owe it to our beneficiaries that our commitment and care to them is unwavering, and we are grateful to the Department of Justice for their enduring commitment to root out waste, fraud and abuse and hold those who break the law accountable,\u201d said DHA Director Lt. Gen. Ronald J. Place, M.D.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>EL PASO El Paso Ear, Nose &amp; Throat Associates (EPENT) has agreed to pay $750,000 to settle allegations that they violated the False Claims Act, officials announced Wednesday. The violations occurred by&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43149,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-u-s-department-of-justice"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Feds: Physicians Group Agreed to Pay $750,000 for &quot;Upcoding&quot; Medical Services<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"EL PASO El Paso Ear, Nose &amp; Throat Associates (EPENT) has agreed to pay $750,000 to settle allegations that they violated the False Claims Act,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=43148\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Feds: Physicians Group Agreed to Pay $750,000 for &quot;Upcoding&quot; 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