Dive Brief:
- Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston has agreed to pay back nearly $1.2 million in Medicare funds to the federal government after an audit found billing errors, according to a report in Becker's Hospital Review.
- According to a report from the HHS Office of the Inspector General, Mass General was only in compliance with billing rules for 23% of sampled claims.
- The OIG found that more than $720,000 of the overpayments resulted from inpatient billing errors, such as bills without a valid physician order.
Dive Insight:
In addition to repaying Medicare overpayments, the OIG said Mass General must strengthen its Medicare billing compliance protocols. Sally Mason Boemer, senior vice president for finance at Mass General, wrote a letter to the agency agreeing with the findings; however, it wouldn't be surprising if Mass General execs chafed a bit at the decision, which was based on only 590 inpatient and outpatient bills issued during 2010 in 2011. That is a miniscule number for a 1,046-bed hospital.