Fraud, waste & abuse

Zero-tolerance policy

At Wellpoint, we have a zero-tolerance policy on fraud, waste and abuse (FWA), and everyone is responsible to make a difference. Our mission is to protect the overall integrity of the healthcare system, as well as to protect our members, providers, business partners and stakeholders by administering a comprehensive and effective anti-fraud plan to prevent, detect, investigate and resolve allegations of potential FWA.

What do we mean by fraud, waste and abuse?

Fraud

A false representation of a matter of fact — whether by words or by conduct, by false or misleading allegations, or by concealment of what should have been disclosed — that deceives and is intended to deceive another so that the individual will act upon his or her legal injury.

Waste

An attempt to obtain reimbursement for items or services where there was no intent to deceive or misrepresent, but the outcome of a billing error caused unnecessary costs to the involved companies. Waste includes overutilization of services not caused by criminally negligent actions. Waste also involves the misuse of resources.

Abuse

Provider practices that are inconsistent with generally accepted business or medical practices and that result in an unnecessary cost to the Medicaid or Medicare program or in reimbursement for goods or services that are not medically necessary or that fail to meet professionally recognized standards for health care; or recipient practices that result in unnecessary cost to the Medicaid or Medicare program.

Other terms defined

Services not rendered
Billing for goods and/or services that were never delivered or provided.

Not medically necessary
Performing inappropriate or unnecessary medical procedures in order to increase payment.

Unbundling
Using multiple billing codes instead of one billing code in order to increase payment.

Up-coding
Billing for a higher level of service than was actually provided.

Misrepresentation
Forging a physician's signature to obtain goods or services.

Double billing
Charging more than once for the same goods or services.

Underutilization
Not providing adequate medical care to increase profits.

Enrollment fraud
Enrolling a beneficiary into a health plan without that person's knowledge.

Theft of services
Utilizing someone else's insurance card to receive services; either through stealing the card or having it provided by the true card holder.

Overpayment
Overpayment defined in accordance with s. 409.913, F.S., includes any amount that is not authorized to be paid by the Medicaid program whether paid as a result of inaccurate or improper cost reporting, improper claiming, unacceptable practices, fraud, abuse or mistake.