Business
Florida Blues looks into overbilling
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted April 12, 2004
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida is working to determine which patients it owes money to after a glitch in the company's billing system caused thousands of its members to be overbilled.
The Jacksonville-based insurance company incorrectly billed 3,600 PPO members, the vast majority of whom were enrolled in a state employee medical plan and who received services at the Mayo Clinic, said Barry Schwartz, MD, vice president of care and network management at Blue Cross.
Blue Cross sent the incorrect bills to Mayo, which in turn sent inflated bills to patients based on data it had received from the Blues, Schwartz said. He said he didn't know why the glitch occurred, but that it was a rarity considering the volume of claims the insurer processes. Mayo is refunding the overpayments as it verifies the new data it gets from Blue Cross.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2004/04/12/bibf0412.htm.
