Nurse practitioner who billed Medicare for spa clients to repay $500,000
The nurse practitioner also billed Medicare inappropriately 'in a conventional practice setting', the PSR said.
A nurse practitioner will repay Medicare $500,000 after conducting unnecessary consultations with spa customers, who then received discounted spa services.
The Professional Services Review (PSR) says the nurse offered spa customers who brought their Medicare card “pre-treatment consultations”, billed to Medicare under items 82215 and 91180 — which have rebates of $75.60 — as well as now-defunct MBS item 82222.
“The nurse practitioner was impermissibly billing Medicare to subsidise the cost of associated spa treatments,” the PSR said in its update for April and May.
“The cost of the spa treatment was reduced if the customer brought their Medicare card with them and had a pre-treatment consultation with the nurse practitioner.
