Aledade Inc. Accused of Fraud
There is a new lawsuit out there that is very interesting and should scare a lot of employed doctors. Aledade Inc. is being accused of fraud due to their software. Here is the article and here are the highlights:
The civil suit alleges that Aledade Inc.’s billing apps and other software and guidance provided to doctors improperly boosted revenues by adding overstated medical diagnoses to patients’ electronic medical records.
“Aledade did whatever it took to make patients appear sicker than they were,” according to the suit.
For example, the suit alleges that Aledade “conflated” anxiety into depression, which could boost payments by $3300 a year per patient. And Aledade decided that patients over 65 years old who said they had more than one drink per day had substance use issues, which could bring in $3680 extra per patient, the suit says.
Aledade is denying all this, of course, and they are so hooked into the gov’t that I guarantee they skate. Here’s the thing. I remember working for MedExpress for one year when I first came to Virginia in 2012. It was an urgent care but I had been trained enough in coding from my past jobs as an employed doctor that I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Every time I used their software to discharge the patient from the urgent care I would see the code on the way out and it was way higher than it should be. And I couldn’t override it! I knew I had to leave this place because few docs understand that THEY are responsible for any wrongdoing in coding and not the company. This means penalties (not covered by malpractice insurance) and even jail time.
So, even if Aledade is found guilty they will just blame it on the docs.
On a side note, Aledade was co-founded in 2014 by Farzad Mostashari who is their CEO. Let’s just say he is NOT well-liked by this blog and so I am going to let Pat Conrad follow up some of his past posts about Farzad when he sees this.
One last thing. ACOs (Accountable Care Organizations )suck and have always been a scam. They never save money but maybe this fraud accusation is true and that is how Fonzi and his crew at Aledade keep their numbers looking good.
May the AAFP rot where the devil lives. Worst group I ever was forced to join in along with the idiotic ABFM. That stands for Academic Bastids and Efffing Morons. Should be a society of GP’s not associated with them at all. I don’t care anymore as I’ve been retired for three years and don’t regret leaving/retiring from practice one iota. Did my service and enjoyed some of the cooperative patients that I got through life and sometimes to help them have a comfortable death. Because of that, many of their families thought I was the greatest doc that ever lived because their loved one died at peace. I live in the satisfaction of that.
Well sometimes folks die suddenly and that’s a whole ‘nother ball game. I still consider my experience to help folks incredible and some patients and families still say “hi” and mention how much they miss me when they see me in Wal-mart. I gently remind them I lost my lovely wife 5 years ago and have guardianship of a mentally handicapped son and they reflect and tell me they understand that’s why I retired. I was too old and tired to do office, hospital and take after-hours call work. That is a young persons job.
https://resources.aledade.com/press-releases/dr-jen-brull-president-of-the-american-academy-of-family-physicians/
Worth pointing out that the AAFP has acted as Aledade’s unpaid PR division for the past decade, AND that the AAFP’s president-elect is an Aledade exec.
The rot runs deep.
Is that true? Any links?
https://www.aafp.org/about/meet-our-leadership/board/brull.html