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Rai$ing the dead in Medicaid 'rip-offs'

Published: 2010-07-10 20:02:40
By: CARL CAMPANILE | New York Post | March 8, 2010

A massive state audit claims that health-care providers billed Medicaid for services provided to 287 dead patients.

Sixty-six providers -- including hospitals, pharmacists and doctors -- admitted their patients were "deceased at the time of service" when confronted by state Medicaid Inspector General James Sheehan's office, The Post has learned.

In one shocking case, the office discovered that Bellevue Hospital in Midtown accepted a cadaver for its organs -- and then sent a bill to Medicaid for the "treatment."

Sheehan said Bellevue "received the body of a deceased Medicaid patient to harvest organs for transplant -- but billed Medicaid as though they were treating the live patient."

The patient had been transferred to Bellevue in a "clinically dead state" last April but was connected to life-supporting equipment "awaiting the removal of organs/tissue for donation," a Bellevue spokesman said.

"The Medicaid program was mistakenly billed for the admission. When this was discovered [by the audit], the reimbursement was voided and returned to Medicaid."

Following the investigation, Bellevue issued a new policy prohibiting staffers from billing Medicaid for harvesting organs or issues from brain-dead patients.

Sheehan said his office's "deceased-patient project" found other examples of people making money off the dead using Medicaid, the $50 billion taxpayer-financed insurance program for the needy:

One dead patient's Medicaid card was used at three dentists in a week.
Providers billed Medicaid for "scheduled patients" before actually treating them.
A family accepted delivery of a new bed paid by Medicaid after the patient died.
A doctor requested delivery of his patient's prescription to his office after she died.

The Office of the Medicaid Inspector General examines Medicaid records for deceased patients.

The recent cases cost the agency less that $1 million, but the OMIG says every dollar counts in a tight state budget.

"We don't want providers billing for dead people," said OMIG spokeswoman Wanda Fischer.

Sixty-six providers, including Bellevue, told the OMIG that they billed Medicaid for dead patients as a result of honest clerical errors.

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