Florida Companies under Medicaid Microscope

TAMPA-ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.–On the heels of Medicare’s supplier
fraud demonstration in South Florida’s Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and
Broward counties, HME companies in the state’s Tampa-St. Petersburg
area are coming under the Medicaid microscope.

Weekend reports in the St. Petersburg Times and The
Tampa Tribune detailed an investigation by the state’s Agency
for Health Care Administration and the Florida Attorney General’s
office centering on Medicaid oxygen concentrator reimbursements at
eight companies in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties.

According to the Times story, preliminary findings by a
12-member team of investigators during visits that included
document reviews and customer interviews found instances of
“billing for equipment that was never delivered, unlicensed
installers and inadequately serviced equipment.” Those findings
will be referred to the attorney general’s Medicaid Fraud Control
Unit, the Department of Health and possibly to Medicare, the
Times article said.

The newspapers listed companies that were visited by the
investigators as ASAP Home Oxygen in St. Petersburg; BayCare Home
Care in Largo; CareMed Respiratory Services in Tampa; the Brandon,
Plant City and St. Petersburg locations of Clearwater-based Lincare
Holdings; Matrix Medical in Plant City; Mercury Enterprises in
Clearwater; Respitek in Tampa; and Rotech Oxygen and Medical
Equipment in Tampa.

An AHCA spokesman told the Tribune “this does not mean
those entities will find cause to sanction any of those
providers.”

The Times reported officials with some companies that
had been visited were surprised by the outcome. “They told me
everything looked okay,” Robert Arado of CareMed Respiratory
Services told the Times.