Jacksonville-based Liberty Ambulance Service Inc. has agreed to a $1.2 million settlement of allegations that it, for more than 10 years, fraudulently billed federal health benefits providers for transportation of patients.
According to a news release Tuesday from the U.S. Attorney's Office Middle District of Florida, the settlement is the result of a multiyear investigation that alleged that between June 29, 2005, and January 2016, Liberty Ambulance knowingly up-coded claims for life support services from “basic” to “advanced” without justification and also unnecessarily transported patients.
The settlement involves false claims submitted to Medicare; Medicaid; the TRICARE Department of Defense health care program; and the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program managed by the Office of Personnel Management.
The case was investigated by the FBI, the Office of Personnel Management, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Florida Medicaid Fraud Control Unit and the Defense Health Agency Program Integrity Office.