Robert L Harding rhard ng6raiieyhardlng.com T 407.648.9119 F 407.648.8049 15 North Eola Drive Orlando, Norlda 32B01 www.raileyharding.com Professional Association ATT O R N EYS AT LAW Thursday, October 02, 2014 Re: Michael Dinkel/ Drew Medical Medicare Issues To whom it may concern: This letter is a written explanation of Michael Dinkel and his former company’s, Drew Medical, Inc. (“Drew”), involvement aad dispute with Medicare. Michael Dinkel was the 1007a owner of Drew. Drew was the leading outpatient radiological service provider and had been offering advanced radiological services in Central Florida areas since 1989. It had 8 locations within the Centml Florida area and provided a multimodality outpatient radiology facility that was accredited by the American College of Radiology for MiII, CT, PET, PET/CT, ultrasound, nuclear medicine and mammography. It employed 225 medical and administrative personnel and had 9 staffed radiologists serving over 160,000 patients per year. In early 2000, Drew’s billing administrator formatted Drew’s billing system’s to submit a claim for CPT Code 36005 (the “Code”) in every instance whereby Drew conducted an MRI or CT accompanied by an injection of contrast. The Code was used after a full review by the billing administrator of the applicable CPT Manual promulgated by the American Medical Association as well as a review of outside consultants. From the time the billing administrator received permission to use the Code in 2000, Michael Dinkel was unaware of any potential problem utilizing the Code. However, various billing compliance people within Drew began to review all of the various CPT Codes and started to internally express their concerns that the Code should not be bundled with every CT and MRI accompanied by contrast. OrlBndo 15 N Eola Drlve Orlando FL 32801 407.64B. 911 9 Tampe 309 S Fleldlng Ave Tampa, FL 33606 813 251.0009 Howard M Allen l FL CO Nora H Mll'ar l FL CA Robert A Crablll } FL Lllburn R Ralley III FL M chael L Dear FL Mark S Ralslnger i FL VA Patrick R Delaney FL NJ PA Roulette A Sutton III ) FL Robart L Harding l FL Erlc M Welss l FL In early January, 2006, Michael Dinkel appointed Drew's Code Review Committee conducted a systematic review of all of the CPT Codes that Drew billed. One of the employed radiologists was on the Code Review Committee. In February, 2006, upon becoming aware of a potenti:it problem utilizing the CPT Code, Michael Dinkel retained the service of Ray Howard & Associates (“RHA”) to conduct an interniil audit of the billing practices with speci:il emphasis on the Code. In March, 2006, determination was made by RHA that the utilization of the Code was an error. Within 24 hours, Michael Dinkel instructed Drew to immediately discontinue utilization of the Code and embarked upon an internal audit and investigation of the extent of the erroneous utilization of the Code. A determination was made that approximately 1.8 Million Dollars was received in error. Drew promptly embarked upon an aggressive payment plan of repaying the government $100,000.00 per month. After 7 months, the above-referenced physician had utilized the information of sitting on the Code Review Committee and filed a Whistleblower case against Michael Dinkel and Drew for the improper use of the Code. Prior to trial, Michael Dinkel and Drew reached a comprehensive settlement with the Federal Government as follows: 1. Thete was no finding of wrongdoing or fraudulent activity. 2. The balance of the One Million Dollars that had not been paid back, was payable in inst:illments over 3 years at a low interest rate. It has all been paid back. 3. No pen:ilties, interests, fines or other sanctions were imposed against Drew or Michael Dinkel however, by the time the settlement was reached a new regime had been installed by the Obama Administration at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. New dicta was imposed requiring that :ill companies found involved in wrongful billing cases would have an exclusion penalty entered against them. A long argument was made by me that this sort of penalty should not be imposed against Michael Dinkel or Drew based on the following facts: a. Thete was never an :il1egation that the CPT Code 36005 was utilized except b. There was no allegation of fraud or intentional wrongdoing nor was thete ever a finding of the same c. Michael Dinkel and Drew self-audited, found the problem and embarked upon an aggressive repayment plan to the government. Notwithstanding the foregoing, Michael Dinkel was excluded from Federal Health Care Programs for a period of 8 years and, as a consequence, was not allowed to own Dtew. He was required to sell the company, which sale was completed in 2012 to John Simon and SimonMed Imaging of Florida, LLC. Oaendo Tampa 15 N Eola Drive 309 S Fielding Ave Orlando FL 32801 Tampa, FL 33606 407.648.9119 813.251.0005 Howard M. Allen FL CO Nora H Miller FL CA Robert A Crablll FL Ulburn R Ralley III FLMlchaal L Dear FL Mark S R6lSln9ar FL VA Patrick R Delaney FL NJ PA Rouselle A Sutton FL Robert L Harding FL Enc M Welss FL
