A settlement has been reached resolving False Claims Act allegations by BioTelemetry Inc that its subsidiary, CardioNet, overbilled Medicare and other federal health programs for Mobile Cardiac Outpatient Telemetry (MCOT) services when those services were not reasonable or medically necessary.
The government alleges that CardioNet was aware that MCOT services were not eligible for Medicare reimbursement when provided to patients who had experienced only mild or moderate heart palpitations, since less expensive monitors could effectively collect data about those patients’ conditions. CardioNet allegedly submitted claims to Medicare anyway for those patients containing the billing code for the more expensive MCOT services along with an inaccurate diagnostic code that misrepresented the true condition of the patients and their need for MCOT services.
