Pennsylvania health system, CEO will pay $12.5M to resolve billing probe

Allentown, Pa.-based Coordinated Health and its founder and CEO Emil DiIorio, MD, have entered into an agreement with the federal government to settle False Claims Act allegations, according to the Department of Justice.

The settlement resolves allegations that Coordinated Health inflated payments from federal payers by unbundling claims for reimbursement for orthopedic surgeries, including many for total joint replacement, from 2007 through mid-2014.

Instead of stopping the illegal unbundling, Dr. DiIorio changed how he wrote operative reports to enable Coordinated Health billers to maximize improperly unbundled reimbursements, according to the Justice Department.

Two outside coding consultants identified the improper unbundling during audits in 2011 and 2013 and told top Coordinated Health executives about the problem. "Motivated by its bottom line, Coordinated Health simply ignored the consultants' recommendations and continued abusing Modifier 59 to improperly unbundle orthopedic surgery claims until mid-2014," states a Justice Department press release.

Coordinated Health will pay $11.25 million and Dr. DiIorio will pay $1.25 million to settle the allegations. In addition to the monetary settlement, Coordinated Health entered into a corporate integrity agreement with HHS that will require monitoring of its billing practices for five years.

Regarding the settlement, Coordinated Health released the following statement: "We are pleased to have come to a resolution with the federal government regarding allegations of our past use of a specific Medicare billing modifier, involving a complex Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services rule, which does not relate to the quality of patient care. We have already updated our billing practice to resolve the issue in question, and have taken a number of decisive actions to reduce the potential for issues in the future. Our focus has been and always will be providing the best possible patient care in the communities we serve."

More articles on legal and regulatory issues:

Aurora Health will pay $12M to resolve improper compensation claims
Feds join lawsuit accusing Sutter Health of Medicare Advantage fraud
Ex-auditor claims Lee Health inflated physician pay to drive referrals

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