On November 22, 2023, while many were preparing for the Thanksgiving holiday, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) posted a consumer alert (Alert) warning the public about a fraud scheme involving monthly billing for remote patient monitoring (RPM).
The Alert follows several large civil and criminal investigations over the last few years of fraud schemes involving companies that claimed to provide telemedicine or telehealth services, but allegedly engaged in kickbacks and substandard medical practices to generate medically unnecessary orders and prescriptions and likely will result in increased scrutiny of all RPM companies.
The OIG says the fraud scheme involves unsolicited contact by unscrupulous companies targeting Medicare beneficiaries to set up monthly billing for RPM equipment and services regardless of medical necessity. According to the OIG, scammers are contacting Medicare enrollees through phone solicitations (“cold calling”), texts, internet ads (“click bait”), and TV advertising. Once these organizations obtain the Medicare beneficiary’s personal information (e.g., the individual’s Medicare number), they begin billing the Medicare program for setup of the equipment, patient education, and monthly monitoring of data. Typically (according to OIG), the scammers never send the patient the equipment requested (or the equipment is not FDA-approved) and the monthly monitoring never happens, but the enrollee is billed monthly, anyway. Durable...
KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 7 (Bernama) -- Three construction company directors will be charged in the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court tomorrow for submitting false claims related to a highway construction pro...