A non-emergency ambulance transport provider reached a federal case settlement to pay more than half a million dollars over the government’s allegations that it submitted fraudulent claims to Medicare.
In the case, a federal prosecutor says Carolina Medcare Inc. submitted claims to Medicare for non-emergent transport services for which the certification of medical necessity had a forged physician’s signature, an altered date, or the signature of a person who was not qualified to make the certification. The government also claimed that for some transports, Carolina Medcare, Inc. had no certificate of medical necessity.
Non- emergency, private ambulance services are a growing industry in South Carolina.
The U.S. Attorney for South Carolina Bill Nettles says that this case is part of a crackdown on non-emergency ambulance providers who transport patients without assuring that the transport is medically necessary. Medicare pays for ambulance transports when a patient can’t be transported by other means. However, when patients can be transported by wheelchair van or private car, he says it’s inappropriate for Medicare to pay approximately $300 to take patients to and from appointments.
