Cardiac Associates, a medical group with four offices in Maryland, has agreed to pay $399,230 to settle false billing allegations, according to the Department of Justice.
The settlement resolves allegations that Cardiac Associates submitted claims to Medicare for services that weren't actually rendered between January 2012 and December 2016. The government alleged that the medical group billed Medicare for two similar procedures on the same date for the same patients, when only one of the procedures was actually performed.
Specifically, the government alleged Cardiac Associates billed Medicare under CPT 93970 for tests administered to patients to assess the venous sufficiency in their legs. The group also allegedly billed for an additional test using CPT 93965, which references older technology that has generally been replaced by CPT 93970. Billing for both codes led to the submission of false claims to Medicare, according to the Justice Department.
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