Medical group to refund $70K

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Medical group to refund $70K

nAttorney General’s Office says administrative fees were illegal

by Joe Beck | Staff Writer

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A Germantown clinic has agreed to refund patients $40 each as part of a settlement reached with the Maryland Attorney General’s Office, which accused the practice of charging an illegal fee.

Germantown Primary Care Associates, at 19500 Amaranth Drive, violated the state’s Consumer Protection Act and Consumer Debt Collection Act, according to a statement from the Attorney General’s Office. The settlement agreement states the clinic ‘‘engaged in unfair or deceptive practices” in soliciting, billing and collecting administrative fees from insured patients.

The clinic will pay more than $70,000 to patients under terms of the settlement, according to Raquel Guillory, a spokeswoman with the Attorney General’s Office.

Bill Askinazi, a lawyer who represented the clinic in the case, denied the clinic broke any laws. He said the practice sought a $40 voluntary annual contribution per family in an effort to offset malpractice premiums, low rates of state reimbursement for serving impoverished patients and ‘‘fiscal squeezing from health insurance companies.”

‘‘The law does not prohibit doctors from voluntarily offsetting their skyrocketing administrative costs,” Askinazi said in an interview May 20.

Askinazi said the clinic remains open and no disciplinary action has been taken against anyone on the eight-member staff.

The settlement requires the clinic to refrain from soliciting, billing or collecting fees for any purpose other than co-payments, co-insurance or deductibles from HMO, Medicare and Maryland Medical Assistance patients. The settlement applies to patients covered by health insurance plans with policies that prohibit doctors from charging such fees.

‘‘Participating providers should only be collecting co-payments and deductibles from their HMO and health insurance patients,” Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler said in a prepared statement.

The Attorney General’s Office will notify all patients who are eligible for a refund, according to the announcement.