An eastern New Hampshire medical center has agreed to pay over $450,000 after an audit revealed one of its hospitals was improperly collecting from a federal health care insurance program.
The Valley News reports Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center agreed to pay the Medicare program after the audit estimated that one of its hospitals wrongly collected $1.4 million from the program in 2011 and 2012.
The auditors looked at a sample of patient services that were deemed potentially at risk for billing errors. They found that Medicare overpaid Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital by $771,000.
A Dartmouth-Hitchcock spokesman says the hospital disagreed with some of the inspector general's findings and conclusions, but would make their recommended repayment. He said the medical center would also work with the contractor to address any earlier potential overpayments.