Main Library
At this week’s spring meeting of the National Association of ACOs (NAACOS), officials from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services were asked to respond to growing concerns about the impact of widespread anomalous billing and suspected fraud involving urinary catheters that is impacting Medicare ACO results.
According to a February 2024 story in the New York Times, more than 450,000 Medicare beneficiaries accounts were billed for urinary catheters in 2023, up from about 50,000 in previous years. The data came from a report produced by the Institute for Accountable Care and NAACOS. “The massive uptick in billing for catheters included $2 billion charged by seven high-volume suppliers, according to that analysis, potentially accounting for nearly one-fifth of all Medicare spending on medical supplies in 2023,” the Times story noted.