New program to make life more manageable for Parkinson’s patients A new program, backed by research, was created using the power of spin cycling to redefine the fight against Parkinson’s.
Medicaid class action gets go-ahead A federal judge has cleared the way for a class-action lawsuit that alleges Florida did not properly inform people before dropping them from the Medicaid program after a COVID-19 public health emergency ended.
FORT MYERS New downtown Fort Myers parking options coming soon Two new spots are coming for you to park on nights and weekends in downtown Fort Myers, but you’ll still have to pay.
LEHIGH ACRES Caught on Camera: Family ‘sucker-punched’ in Lehigh Acres brawl A woman caught in a conflict she had nothing to do with in Lehigh Acres is speaking out about what happened at Barefoot Lake.
Miracle Moment: Christina Soriero Doctors diagnosed 22-year-old Christina Soriero with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma when she was just 18. A time in her life when the only thing she should have been dealing with was senioritis and getting ready for life after high school.
DeSantis signs bill impacting new mothers and jury duty Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed a bill that will impact new mothers and their eligibility to serve on jury duty.
Genesis of Naples breaking ground on new car dealership A genesis—or new beginning—is under way for Genesis of Naples. The local franchise plans to break ground this summer on a new and expanded luxury auto dealership in North Naples.
Emails show beginnings, contradictions of South Seas resort amendment South Seas resort ownership group’s engineer proposed a land-use amendment for Lee County’s government at least six months before the first public discussions and at least seven weeks before the county’s official timeline began, emails between the resort’s representatives and county show.
CAPE CORAL 13-year-old arrested for allegedly getting involved in hit-and-run with stolen car, fleeing from Cape Coral police A teen was arrested on multiple charges after allegedly getting involved in a hit-and-run with a stolen car and then fleeing from police.
NORTH FORT MYERS Caloosahatchee River Bridge to close overnight for construction The Caloosahatchee River Bridge from First Street to North Key Drive in North Fort Myers will close so crews can perform bridge work.
CAPE CORAL Accused Cape Coral double murderer, Wade Wilson, closer to trial Wade Wilson, the man who allegedly murdered two women, went to court Monday to try to persuade a judge to get the death penalty off the table.
Jupiter DeSantis announces funding for developmentally disabled individuals Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis spoke on education for children with developmental disabilities at the Els Center of Excellence in Jupiter.
CHARLOTTE COUNTY Bradenton man arrested after allegedly masturbating inside Charlotte County Walmart A man from Bradenton has been arrested after he was allegedly masturbating inside a Walmart in Charlotte County.
LEHIGH ACRES Lehigh Acres work trailer explosion injures 1 The Lehigh Acres Fire Control and Rescue District responded to a work trailer explosion that injured one person.
CBS News Trump and DeSantis, once GOP rivals, meet in South Florida to talk about 2024 election Florida Governor Ron DeSantis met privately with former President Donald Trump for several hours on Sunday morning to talk, in part, about fundraising ahead of the 2024 general election, several sources familiar with the meeting tell CBS News.
New program to make life more manageable for Parkinson’s patients A new program, backed by research, was created using the power of spin cycling to redefine the fight against Parkinson’s.
Medicaid class action gets go-ahead A federal judge has cleared the way for a class-action lawsuit that alleges Florida did not properly inform people before dropping them from the Medicaid program after a COVID-19 public health emergency ended.
FORT MYERS New downtown Fort Myers parking options coming soon Two new spots are coming for you to park on nights and weekends in downtown Fort Myers, but you’ll still have to pay.
LEHIGH ACRES Caught on Camera: Family ‘sucker-punched’ in Lehigh Acres brawl A woman caught in a conflict she had nothing to do with in Lehigh Acres is speaking out about what happened at Barefoot Lake.
Miracle Moment: Christina Soriero Doctors diagnosed 22-year-old Christina Soriero with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma when she was just 18. A time in her life when the only thing she should have been dealing with was senioritis and getting ready for life after high school.
DeSantis signs bill impacting new mothers and jury duty Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed a bill that will impact new mothers and their eligibility to serve on jury duty.
Genesis of Naples breaking ground on new car dealership A genesis—or new beginning—is under way for Genesis of Naples. The local franchise plans to break ground this summer on a new and expanded luxury auto dealership in North Naples.
Emails show beginnings, contradictions of South Seas resort amendment South Seas resort ownership group’s engineer proposed a land-use amendment for Lee County’s government at least six months before the first public discussions and at least seven weeks before the county’s official timeline began, emails between the resort’s representatives and county show.
CAPE CORAL 13-year-old arrested for allegedly getting involved in hit-and-run with stolen car, fleeing from Cape Coral police A teen was arrested on multiple charges after allegedly getting involved in a hit-and-run with a stolen car and then fleeing from police.
NORTH FORT MYERS Caloosahatchee River Bridge to close overnight for construction The Caloosahatchee River Bridge from First Street to North Key Drive in North Fort Myers will close so crews can perform bridge work.
CAPE CORAL Accused Cape Coral double murderer, Wade Wilson, closer to trial Wade Wilson, the man who allegedly murdered two women, went to court Monday to try to persuade a judge to get the death penalty off the table.
Jupiter DeSantis announces funding for developmentally disabled individuals Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis spoke on education for children with developmental disabilities at the Els Center of Excellence in Jupiter.
CHARLOTTE COUNTY Bradenton man arrested after allegedly masturbating inside Charlotte County Walmart A man from Bradenton has been arrested after he was allegedly masturbating inside a Walmart in Charlotte County.
LEHIGH ACRES Lehigh Acres work trailer explosion injures 1 The Lehigh Acres Fire Control and Rescue District responded to a work trailer explosion that injured one person.
CBS News Trump and DeSantis, once GOP rivals, meet in South Florida to talk about 2024 election Florida Governor Ron DeSantis met privately with former President Donald Trump for several hours on Sunday morning to talk, in part, about fundraising ahead of the 2024 general election, several sources familiar with the meeting tell CBS News.
LEE COUNTY, Fla. – An exclusive WINK News Call for Action investigation uncovered hospital billing mistakes are more common than you would think and it is costing you money. When a patient goes to the hospital, the physician is supposed to fill out a form explaining why the patient was seen and the treatment received. During that the process, the doctor puts in a specific code which is forwarded to the billing department. However, Sheri Samotin, a medical billing advocate, said often the bills are improperly coded. “There are basically two kinds of codes. There’s the codes that code what they did to you, those are called procedure codes so like an established office visit of high complexity has a particular code. Then there’s diagnosis codes, and those are the codes that say here’s what was wrong with you or not wrong with you,” Samotin explained. “The staff are simply just not up-to-date or up to speed, or they’re overwhelmed by the volume and so they kind of fall into a routine of coding things in a particular way. It may not be a deliberate mistake that they’re trying to what’s called up-code.” However, those mistakes often result in higher costs to the patient. “I’m dealing with it right now, with a lab charge. My doctor drew blood, sent the blood off to the lab…I got the explanation of benefits from my insurance company. It showed that they paid all but one of the codes. The reason for denial right on the explanation of benefits was that the particular diagnosis is one that’s not covered by insurance…It was a diagnosis that was related to infertility treatment, and in fact the reason these particular labs were drawn is for perimenopausal symptoms, hot flashes and so on…It was a coding error that occurred somewhere along the line, and as a result the insurance company denied it and the lab is billing me.” Samotin gave another example, where a client was charged for a pap smear but the patient was a man. WINK News Call for Action found often the mistakes are not that obvious. John Kelly lives part-time in Southwest Florida. Last year he went to the doctor for an annual physical, which according to his insurance provider should not cost him a co-pay. At the same time, he had lab work done, which was also covered through his insurance. A month later, Kelly said Lee Memorial Health Center called him saying he owed $58.16 for his appointment. “I didn’t challenge it. I actually paid it over the phone by credit card at that point,” Kelly said. “Shortly there after I started receiving additional bills for laboratory work.” The additional bills were for $200, all for lab work that should have been covered. Kelly called his insurance company, who told him the physician’s office had made a mistake on his bill. “I was informed that the code Lee Memorial was using was for an office visit, not an annual visit. To me it seemed like semantics, but apparently in the medical billing field they’re very specific with the codes they use.” Kelly said he spent countless hours on the phone and visiting the billing department in-person to try and rectify the situation. “I got bounced from person to person. Initially it was just we go by what the doctor writes and that’s all there is to it. I started writing correspondence to them and I received nothing in return, absolutely nothing…This continued through the summer. I had made correspondence through the Attorney General’s office.” Eight months later, Kelly said he received a voice mail that stated the hospital had reimbursed him the $58.16 he paid for the actual visit and they zeroed his account with the lab work charges. The Department of Agriculture also responded to Kelly saying they had “attempted to mediate your complaint against the business. Unfortunately, the business has refused to cooperate.” In the meantime, Kelly called WINK News Call for Action. We contacted Lee Memorial Health System to ask about the reimbursement. Mary Briggs, a spokesperson for the hospital sent the below response. “We make every effort to bill correctly the first time, but on occasion errors occur. Upon review we determined we made a mistake in coding. It appears the annual physical was documented as an office visit, which caused the labs to be incorrectly coded as well. Mr. Kelly’s account has been credited for the charge. We sincerely apologize for this error and the inconvenience it has caused.” Briggs also said they had no record the Department of Agriculture attempted to contact them. Samotin said once a bill is improperly coded it is a lengthy process to get reimbursement. In her case, it has been six months and the hospital has not fixed the coding on her bill. “And that’s for a dinky little claim, where frankly it just shouldn’t be this hard,” Samotin said. WINK News Call for Action uncovered the mistakes are costing more than just patients. In a report released by the Office of Inspector General (OIG) last year, it found Medicare inappropriately paid $6.7 billion for claims on evaluation and management services in 2010. Evaluation and management (E/M) services include visits where a physician or non-physician practitioner sees a patient to assess and manage a beneficiary’s health. The OIG made three recommendations to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) including educating physicians on coding, having contractors review high-coding physicians’ bills and following up on claims that were paid in error. WINK News Call for Action contacted CMS to ask what has been done since the report was released nearly nine months ago. A spokesperson said, “While we did not agree with all of the OIG recommendations CMS is working to ensure that physicians and health care providers appropriately bill for E&M services. Some providers have sicker patients, thus are more likely to bill at E&M coding levels that carry higher payments. Every day we work with providers to make patient care the priority, and at the same time ensure they use E&M codes that reflect the level of service provided.” Call for Action Reporter Lindsey Sablan asked if CMS had recouped any of the $6.7 billion inappropriately paid. CMS responded saying, “that was not a formal recommendation by the OIG.” They did say they have posted education material on coding guidelines, which can be found here. Samotin said the most important thing you can do as a patient is to read your explanation of benefits sent by your insurance company. If a claim was denied that you think insurance should have covered, find out why. Also, before you even make the appointment make sure to ask that the doctor you are seeing is in-network. Samotin said when you arrive at your appointment that day, ask the receptionist to again confirm your doctor is in-network.