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Old Thu Apr 11, 2013, 12:40 AM
Neil Cuadra Neil Cuadra is offline
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Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Los Angeles, California
Posts: 2,553
Chirley,

I would submit the paperwork to Medicare and enclose a letter asking whether it's a problem that the appointment was less than 10 minutes and may have been coded as a longer appointment. Once it's in the system I'd phone or email them to followup and ask how the claim will be handled and whether you need to do provide any other information.

In other words, I would treat it as a possible mistake, not assume that I knew it was fraud, and make clear that you are asking for advice or direction. You shouldn't have to be the middle of a matter between the doctor and Medicare. If for some reason the billing is correct (e.g., if appointment times are always rounded up) or they decide not to act on what you told them then you'll get your reimbursement. If it gets treated as a billing error then they'll presumably give you instructions for anything you need to do about it. And if they consider it possible fraud then they're in charge of investigating it. In that way, you'll be honest about providing the facts without cheating yourself out of reimbursement.

Does that sound sensible?
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