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Home Health & Hospice Week

Reader Question:

Are Overpayments Putting Your Agency At Risk?

Published on Fri Jan 14, 2011

Do you have patients that pay copays? Keep close track or risk False Claims Act penalties. Question: We've discovered that a patient overpaid us on her copay. We collected $20 per visit, which was the last copay we had on record. It turns out that the patient's plan changed and her copay is now only $10 for a visit, however. Can we just credit her account or do we need to issue a refund? Answer: You do need to issue a refund to the patient, but how you do that is up to the patient, experts say. As soon as you discover that a patient has overpaid you, you should notify the patient. You cannot hold onto the money indefinitely. You can credit the patient's account, but only if the patient agrees to that. If the patient's care is continuing, you can suggest that you apply the overpayment as a [...]
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