In a Medicare compliance audit of critical care services provided by Lahey Clinic in Burlington, Massachusetts, the HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) found a high error rate.[1] But the overpayment amount was small and OIG didn’t extrapolate it.
Lahey Clinic is a multidisciplinary physician practice and teaching affiliate of Tufts University School of Medicine. OIG audited a stratified random sample of 100 inpatient admissions that included 1,410 critical services. Medical records for 10 of the admissions, with 92 critical care services, were reviewed by an independent medical reviewer.