After an initial investigation by CBS News Texas exposed one company's alleged connection to over $200 million in alleged fraud, viewers "flooded" the investigation team with their own experiences with Medicare fraud, according to a July 23 MSN report.
A follow-up report revealed 11 more Texas-based medical supply companies with links to potential fraud. Upon reaching out to these firms, CBS found many of them were unreachable and had vacated their commercial spaces.
For example, Lone Star Medlab Laboratories had vanished from its Plano office and its listed phone number had been disconnected. Another company with numerous complaints of alleged fraudulent billing, Peak Health Diagnostics, left its offices over a year and a half ago. Aids for Recovery, also based in North Texas, had dozens of complaints filed against them with the Better Business Bureau for allegedly billing Medicare accounts for glucose monitoring equipment fraudulently. Upon investigation, CBS found a lockout notice posted on the company’s former office space. The office was empty other than a pile of unopened letters from Medicare.
CMS told CBS that investigations were underway into 11 companies suspected of nearly $3 billion in fraudulent catheter billing, but could not share more details, according to the MSN report.