There are many people in Florida who use Medicare for their health insurance and it is used for the medical procedures these individuals need. The medical providers will therefore bill Medicare for payment of their services and for the medical equipment that the patients need. However, it is impossible for Medicare to monitor every medical treatment provided to a particular patient and need to trust the medical professionals are honest when they bill for the medical treatment they provided.
However, for many different reasons there are individuals or companies who may be accused of committing Medicare fraud. This can occur in a variety of ways, but there are some fraud schemes are more common than others.
Some common forms of fraud are: knowingly billing for more complex or expensive procedures that were not actually used on the patient; knowingly billing for services or supplies not actually used; knowingly ordering items the patient does not need; billing for appointments the patient did not attend; receiving or paying kickbacks, referrals or bribes to get referrals for federal healthcare programs and in other ways.
People who are convicted of Medicare Fraud could face jail time, fines, civil lawsuits and other penalties. However, they must be convicted first. Simply being charged does not mean people are in fact guilty. There could be defenses available to people. The prosecutors need to prove that people intentionally committed fraud, which may not be the case in some situations. It is not fraud if someone simply made a mistake.
There are many people in the healthcare industry in Florida and many will deal with Medicare for some patients. So, in order to get paid for their services they must bill Medicare and some people may be accused of fraud depending on the circumstances. People are innocent until proven guilty though and have rights after being accused of fraud. Experienced attorneys understand people’s rights and may be able to help protect them.
