Medicare beneficiaries claim that their health insurance companies have been charged thousands of dollars for urinary catheters they never ordered or received. The company that allegedly charged for the devices says that it does not know anything about it. The feds are on the case.
Pretty in Pink Boutique in Nashville, which provides wigs and mastectomy bras for cancer patients, said it has received dozens of calls since August from people who received fraudulent claims for catheters from a company with its name. As a result, the boutique has added a page to its website stating, “We aren’t the company that billed you.”
Indeed, the 20-year-old, family-owned business said there are at least five companies registered with Medicare that operate with the name, Pretty in Pink Boutique. But the Tennessee company isn’t affiliated with the others and is set up only to bill for mastectomy supplies and compression garments. The company urged people who have received an explanation of benefits for catheters they haven’t ordered to report the fraud to Medicare. “Fraudulent claims are bad for all of us, and we are on your side,” the company wrote.
The Washington Post reports that the Pretty in Pink Boutique’s experience is a small part of an estimated $2 billion Medicare fraud scheme that may involve seven companies.
Although the FBI’s public affairs and officials from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services wouldn’t discuss the allegations or an existence of a federal probe with the publication, the National Association of ACOs told the New York Post that it believes seven companies operating out of Connecticut, Florida, Kentucky, New York and Texas submitted fraudulent bills to Medicare over the past two years. The association believes the companies billed Medicare $1.9 billion for catheters for 406,000 patients in 2023.