Source Article – Doctor and Urgent Care Clinic Settle Allegations Over Medicaid Fraud

According to a media release from Oregon Department of Justice allegations that Family Choice Urgent Care, LLC submitted false claims to the OR Medicaid program between 2020 and 2022 has been settled.  The operator agreed to pay $489,280 in restitution for these charges.  The charges entailed that Family Choice submitted thousands of claims between 2020 and 2022 for medically unnecessary COVID-19 tests and inflated the billing codes for routine visits.

I’m sure that the DOJ did a thorough investigation and, in this situation, charges brought against FCUC were valid, but I can’t help but think that during the pandemic and especially in 2020 the world was a different place.  UC operators were scrambling to get parking lot test sites in place, determine what safety protocols were needed and there were a lot of scared people in long lines to get tested.  

I’m wondering if what would be deemed medically unnecessary testing now wasn’t unnecessary during a global pandemic.