Tennessee Ambulance Company Allegedly Billed Medicare for Food Runs

The owners of Murfreesboro (Tenn.) Ambulance Service are facing more than 40 combined counts of healthcare fraud after an investigation found the company filed improper claims that resulted in the collection of at least $587,000 in Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements, according to a Daily News Journal report.

The alleged fraud took place from 1998-2006. The ambulance company's owners, Woody and Kathy Medlock, along with their son Bubba Medlock, face the charges. The company came under question in 2005, when it was the fifth-highest paid provider out of 82 companies to transport patients in need of dialysis services.

Investigators saw patients riding in the front seats of the ambulance and more than one patient at a time — two acts that would disqualify the ambulance from federal reimbursement. One investigator allegedly witnessed the ambulance pulling into a restaurant where a patient allegedly picked up food. That ride was then billed to Medicare as two separate trips to a dialysis clinic, according to the report.

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