Scooter Store Says Company Is Government Target

NEW BRAUNFELS, Texas–In a May 4 letter to CMS Administrator
Mark McClellan, the nation’s largest power chair provider said it
has been unfairly targeted by the federal government in its
attempts to drive down power mobility utilization.

“The barrage of punitive actions taken against [The Scooter
Store] over the past two months lead inescapably to one conclusion:
that the federal government is targeting TSS as a high-volume
supplier of power mobility equipment in order to drive down
utilization,” said TSS counsel Marc Racicot of Washington,
D.C.-based Bracewell & Giuliani LLP.

The letter is the latest volley in an ongoing legal battle
between the national provider and HHS.

Earlier this year, The Scooter Store filed suit against HHS,
claiming the government wrongfully denied hundreds of its power
chair claims and had illegally requested patient documentation in
addition to a physician-signed CMN for reimbursement. On April 29,
the U.S. Department of Justice filed a countersuit against TSS,
alleging the provider had submitted fraudulent claims to Medicare
and Medicaid.

In last week’s letter, Racicot said that TSS has received 990
post-pay review requests from the DMERCs. “These information
collection requests are very difficult–if not impossible–to
satisfy because they require, upon penalty of automatic denial of a
claim, the production and submission of physicians’ chart notes.
Physicians are not required by law to chart their notes in the
manner the DMERCs have arbitrarily decided they should chart, as
the American Medical Association has stated. Moreover, suppliers
cannot force physicians to turn over their chart notes so that a
supplier can submit them to the federal government.”

For more than 18 months, the company has also been “subjected to
undercover investigations and repetitive demands for information,”
Racicot said.

“Like the information collections, the allegations made by
Justice Department lawyers are baseless and punitive in nature.
Simply put, allowing such actions to proceed is just plain wrong.
It is incredibly unfair, wholly inconsistent with the principles of
good government, and threatens the very existence of TSS,” the
letter stated.

According to the DOJ, since 1997 The Scooter Store has billed
Medicare for claims worth more than $400 million.