Former Orlando Health patients may have to help repay the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services after a federal audit discovered the hospital overbilled Medicare by $1.45 million, the Orlando Sentinel reports.
Orlando Health says it owes much less than that, and called the overbilling errors “honest” mistakes. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says Orlando Health overbilled for several reasons, including characterizing some outpatients as inpatients, which garners a higher reimbursement from CMS, the Sentinel reports.
In a separate case, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida is putting a stop to a telemarketing scheme where scammers pretended to be calling on behalf of Medicare to get senior citizens to share personal and banking information.
As a news release from the Federal Trade Commission says, the scheme netted Tampa’s Sun Bright Ventures LLC, Citadel ID Pro LLC, and Benjamin Todd Workman millions.
According to the complaint, many of the consumers were on the Do Not Call registry; according to the FTC, they were tricked into sharing their information later found that either $399 or $448 had been debited from their bank accounts.
