OLYMPIA, Wash. – Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson is touting a Medicaid Fraud Control investigation for a reimbursement to the state’s Medicaid program.
Ferguson announced in a release that Lincare Inc. paid back the state $1.15 million dollars after the oxygen tank provider knowingly billed rental fees beyond the three years allowed by law more than 15,000 times.
Lincare, based in Clearwater, Florida with a billing office in Spokane Valley, provides rentals of oxygen equipment to patients with respiratory conditions.
The state of Washington allows for Medicaid to pay rental fees on oxygen equipment for three years. For an additional two years, providers such as Lincare can continue to bill for maintenance and supplies, but may no longer charge rental fees. After that, the device is eligible for replacement, the release said.
Ferguson added that Lincare continued to bill Medicaid rental fees for six years and that the Washington Medicaid Fraud Control Division estimated Lincare overbilled Medicaid for 565 Washington patients by more than a half-million dollars.
The Division receives 75 percent of its funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under a grant award totaling $10,873,316 for federal fiscal year 2025 and the remaining 25 percent, totaling $3,624,436, is funded by Washington state Medicaid fraud recoveries, the release said.
