Therapist pays $100,000 in Medicare fraud case

PROVIDENCE – A physical therapist who formerly had offices in East Providence and Warwick has paid $100,000 to the federal government to settle potential claims that he over-billed and falsely billed Medicare for treatments.
U.S. Attorney Robert Clark Corrente last week announced a settlement agreement reached with William H. Wynne, the physical therapist, which is accompanied by a pretrial diversion agreement filed in lieu of prosecution.
According to the settlement agreement, between January 2000 and August 2005, Wynne submitted claims to Medicare that resulted in a total of $696,313 in payments to his firm, Wynne Physical Therapy Inc. A federal audit determined that many of the claims that Wynne submitted should have been denied for any of several reasons. Among the reasons: the procedures were medically unnecessary, and certain claims had been “upcoded,” or billed at a higher payment code than justified.