Health care providers who bill Medicare and/or Medicaid are required to provide comprehensive and compliant claims for all services rendered and for all supplies/pharmaceuticals used in the delivery of patient care.
Penalties for non-compliant claims are significant. They include possible criminal prosecution (Medicare fraud), and civil and administrative enforcement, which can result in significant monetary fines and sanctions to exclude providers from treating Medicare and Medicaid patients.
With the trend toward lower reimbursement and stricter regulation, a claims/billing compliance program becomes an important survival tool for any medical practice. An effective compliance program demonstrates your practice’s good-faith effort to comply with the laws. It is designed to help you identify and prevent erroneous and fraudulent claims, eliminate billing mistakes, and reduce the chance of audit.
It is difficult to satisfy Medicare/Medicaid payer documentation and coding requirements necessary to receive appropriate payment. Therefore, medical practices should have a Medicare and Medicaid compliance program in place to identify problems and correct them before Medicare/Medicaid appear on the doorstep with a demand for overcharge repayment. Even for small practices, the repayment amount demanded can exceed hundreds of thousands of dollars, not to mention fines and potential criminal and civil penalties.
The Office of Inspector General (OIG) acknowledges solo and small group practices may not have sufficient resources to implement industry-leading practices. Nevertheless, the OIG requires such practices to address compliance in a proactive manner, which ensures state and federal laws are followed.
Your Medicare and Medicaid compliance program does not have to be perfect. It must be effective, however, and each practice has the burden of demonstrating its effectiveness to obtain the benefit of reduced culpability of a Medicare or Medicaid fraud claim.
Your best defense? The professional advice from us, the reputable medical compliance lawyers at Chapman Law Group.
Our legal experience and industry partnerships make us an excellent provider of Medicare and Medicaid compliance services. Our medical compliance attorneys work to find your claim weaknesses and correct them before Medicare/Medicaid discover the problems.
We are skilled at assisting clients with the highest risk area identified by the OIG: claims coding and billing. We can help you with claims compliance by prospectively addressing billing issues, whether related to missing charges, unstated procedures, inaccurate and non-compliant charging, or National Correct Coding Initiatives (NCCI).
Chapman Law Group helps to make sure that medical practices, through appropriate coding and claims submissions, do not run afoul of the five main federal fraud and abuse laws:
Chapman Law Group will work with your office billing and coding staff to obtain copies of your claims and carefully inspect them using a proprietary system to identify problems. We collaborate with a well-respected coding specialist group to test the bulk of your claims for the following problems:
Chapman Law Group’s analysis of your charges/claims will pinpoint erroneous charges and identify whether non-compliant charging practices exist. Because of this rigorous process, we can review documentation relative to charges posted, provide real-time feedback to clinical staff, and work to correct documentation.
We regularly advise doctors, pharmacists, dentists, and other practitioners across the U.S. who are subject to Medicare audits and the Medicare audit process. Our firm has 35 years of experience in developing compliance programs and providing regulatory compliance consultation for practices nationally.
With our Stark Law, False Claims Act, Anti-Kickback defense attorneys and Medicare audit lawyers, Chapman Law Group is dedicated to defending licenses and livelihood of all health care professionals nationally. We have four national offices to serve you:
If your professional practice is in jeopardy due to problems related to claims submission or Medicare and Medicaid fraud, or you are facing Medicare exclusion, contact us today.
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Chapman Law Group contended that the government was unable to prove, “‘by a preponderance of the evidence,’” our client’s DEA registration should be denied solely because of his Medicare/Medicaid exclusion.
Our attorneys argued to the OIG that exclusion for the prescribed time period was unreasonable under OIG regulations, and that most factors that would lead to a greater exclusion period were inapplicable.
Our Medicare fraud attorneys obtained a reinstatement of billing privileges for a laboratory audited for billing for unnecessary services where there were alleged “credible allegations of fraud.”
Our attorneys worked with the DEA and negotiated by offering a compliance program to bring the physician back into compliance with the DEA’s requirements.
In “Physician Guide to Basic Compliance Concepts,” Chapman Law Group’s national healthcare compliance attorneys cover how to spot and avoid healthcare fraud, handling investigations and audits, and keeping your staff in the right.
Can Medicare/Medicaid/government contractors seek debts after a bankruptcy filing? Yes, but it can be complex, and methods vary by jurisdiction.
If a physician is excluded from Medicare/Medicaid because he/she accepted a kickback, does this mean he/she could be denied DEA registration in the future? Not necessarily.
New healthcare business ventures can easily, sometimes unknowingly run afoul of Stark Law, Anti-Kickback, and the False Claims Act. Here’s how to be sure you are being fully compliant and not violating any state and federal laws.
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