Office of the Attorney General: Haverhill Home Oxygen Supplier to Pay Nearly $120,000 to State's Medicaid Program for Fraudulent Billing Practices

FROM THE OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL

July 14, 2008

BOSTON – Attorney General Martha Coakley’s Office has reached an agreement with a Haverhill home oxygen supplier to settle allegations of improper billing practices. Home Care Specialists, Inc. (Home Care Specialists), has agreed to pay $118,524 to the state’s Medicaid Program.

The settlement follows an investigation by the Attorney General’s Office after an audit of Home Care Specialists billing records. Investigators discovered that between 1996 and 2006 the company engaged in improper billing practices which resulted in overpayments by the Massachusetts Medicaid Program (MassHealth), a program providing comprehensive health care benefits to some of the Commonwealth’s neediest citizens. The settlement requires Home Care Specialists to repay the overpayments, with interest, and submit to a one-year program of internal audits and reviews by an independent auditor.

Home Care Specialists provides oxygen services and supplies to patients in their own homes and to those living in nursing homes. These services included the rental of necessary equipment and the pick-up and delivery of oxygen tanks. The investigation revealed that the Company improperly billed for:

[TEXT MISSING] pieces of equipment separately that should have been billed as one piece of equipment equipment that was no longer medically necessary items and services at rates higher than those approved by MassHealth.

Home Care Specialists cooperated with the Attorney General’s investigation and independently identified some erroneous billing overcharges.

This case was settled by Assistant Attorney General David R. Marks and was investigated by Investigator John Walsh and Data Analyst Anthony Megathlin, both of Attorney General Coakley’s Medicaid Fraud Division.