An Ohio hospital settled a civil monetary penalty case in July over split/shared visits, which is a compliance risk because they’re often mistaken for incident-to billing.

Mercy Medical Center in Canton, Ohio, agreed to pay $210,739 in a civil monetary penalty settlement. The HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) alleged the hospital billed Medicare, Medicaid and TRICARE for services provided by physician assistants under the supervising physician’s provider number, although the documentation didn’t satisfy the requirements of split/shared visits from Jan. 1, 2007, to Dec. 31, 2016, according to the settlement.

The settlement stemmed from Mercy Medical Center’s self-disclosure to OIG. Mercy identified the split/shared billing during a routine compliance audit, says attorney Amanda Waesch, who represents the hospital. “They took immediate action and started the Self-Disclosure Protocol immediately,” says Waesch, with Brennan, Manna & Diamond in Akron, Ohio. OIG accepted the hospital into the protocol in December 2017.