Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1416329
22 CODING & BILLING Arkansas eye center sued for $815K over alleged billing fraud scheme: 4 details By Laura Dyrda T he attorney general of Arkansas is suing Conway (Ark.) Eye Care and Todd Eye Clinic over allegations that the practice defrauded Medicaid thousands of dollars. Four details: 1. Leslie Rutledge, Arkansas' attorney general, filed the lawsuit seeking civil penalties and an investigation into Conway Eye Care and Todd Eye Clinic, owned and operated by Charles Todd Jr., MD, and Karen Todd. e Aug. 23 lawsuit accuses the group of falsifying documents to bill for optometric services. 2. e practice allegedly filed more than 700 fraudulent claims and received more than $800,000 from the Arkansas Medicaid program on those claims. 3. Ms. Todd admitted to falsifying information on the Medi- care and Medicaid claims portal in October 2019 during an interview with the state's Medicaid fraud control unit. She was arrested on a felony Medicaid fraud charge at that time. 4. e Aug. 23 lawsuit seeks $815,085.59 in restitution and ad- ditional civil penalties from Dr. Todd and the practice. n Patients save an average $684 per procedure at ASCs By Patsy Newitt S hifting routine outpatient procedures to ASCs can save commercially insured patients $684 on average per procedure, according to a Sept. 8 report from UnitedHealth Group. Four things to know: 1. On average, shifting common outpatient proce- dures for commercially insured individuals to ASCs reduces the cost of procedures by 59 percent. 2. In 2019, the average price of common procedures performed in a hospital outpatient department was 144 percent more than the price of the same proce- dures in ASCs. 3. Fifty-six percent of procedures performed in HOP- Ds are for noncomplex patients with access to ASCs. 4. Thirty-five percent of the more than 6 million rou- tine hospital outpatient procedures are for patients who do not have an ASC near their homes. n