A Jacksonville-based medical group is settling with the federal government.
The US Attorney’s Office says Southeast Orthopedic Specialists will pay $4.488 million to resolve allegations under the False Claims Act. The settlement does not include any admission or determination of liability.
Prosecutors say the company billed federal healthcare programs for “services that were not medically necessary and reasonable”, also seeking millions of dollars in reimbursements for “healthcare claims that were questionable”. The US Attorney’s Office says that includes pushing off post-operative visits in order to be outside of the timeframe of normal group charges, using and billing for certain procedures of techniques that weren’t medically necessary, and other billing issues.
A statement submitted to WOKV late Thursday following our request Wednesday says SOS is thankful for continued community support.
“As a matter of sound business practices we initiated an audit with an independent consulting organization that revealed historical technical coding questions that were corrected, and in cooperation with the federal authorities we reached a settlement without delay,” says the statement from Southeast Orthopedic Specialists CEO Donnie Romine.