[golfing eagles]

Originally Posted by JMintzer

I've been investigated by Medicare 4 times. The first time, I owed them about $114.00..

The 2nd time, THEY owed ME about 95.00...

The 3rd time, I owed them about about $34.00. For a grand total of about $50... All of them were simple coding errors...

How many thousands of dollars did the spend to recoup $50?

The last investigation?

They accused me of treating a dead person.

No, I may hav nodded off a time or two in Med school, but I'm pretty sure I was awake during the "How to tell if your patient is ALIVE" lecture!

Turns out, I did a wound care consult on a patient during my lunch hour. Later that evening, around 8-9 pm, the patient coded and died...

I had to go to medical records, dig up the chart and copy the entire day's progress notes, including the vital signs taken in the am, lunch time, my consult, early evening vital signs , as well as the "code blue" event...

I sent it all to Medicare and received a very formal letter that simply said, "Never mind"... No apology, "Oops on our part, sorry for the stress we put you thru..."

It was kinda' like getting a threatening letter from the IRS, when the error was on their part. Not good for the heart!

Yep, that's fun too. Fortunately, the only time a Medicare audit found anything wrong with my billing they stated I coded a 99213 and it should have been a 99214---they sent me a check for $46. Like you, I wonder how much it cost HCFA to give me that $46.