DATE: Sunday, May 25, 1997                  TAG: 9705250074

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 

DATELINE: RICHMOND                          LENGTH:   52 lines

TRANSPORT SERVICE FOR DISABLED TARGET OF MEDICAID-FRAUD PROBE

State authorities are investigating whether a transportation service for the disabled defrauded the government of more than $250,000 in Medicaid payments.

The Medicaid Fraud Control Unit of the Virginia attorney general's office has alleged in court papers that Van Go Inc. overbilled for its services since 1993 by submitting false claims to Medicaid. Investigators searched the company's offices and vehicles in Henrico County on May 16 looking for supporting documents.

``We've been aware of the investigation for some time,'' said Robert J. Rice, an attorney representing company owner J. Sidney Del Cardayre.

``We've been more than willing to cooperate. . . . There apparently is a discrepancy between regulations regarding billing procedures and how those regulations were explained to Mr. Del Cardayre during his attempts to clarify the regulations.''

Chief among the allegations is that Van Go regularly billed Medicaid for individual trips when more than one Medicaid recipient was transported at the same time. The practice, known as split billing, is prohibited by Medicaid regulations.

Authorities also allege that Van Go transported ambulatory Medicaid recipients in non-wheelchair vans and then billed Medicaid for the wheelchair transportation rate, which is about three times higher.

``Medicaid regulations state that wheelchair transportation services are limited to Medicaid recipients who are confined to a wheelchair,'' attorney general's investigator David A. Hardwich wrote in an affidavit for a search warrant filed in Henrico Circuit Court. ``All Medicaid billings reviewed by me indicated that VGI never billed at the lower rate.''

After a nine-month investigation beginning last July, Hardwich estimated that Van Go was overpaid by Medicaid ``in excess of $250,000 due to split billing and billing at the higher wheelchair rate for claims submitted on behalf of Medicaid recipients.''

Hardwich, in the affidavit, said Medicaid payments to Van Go exceeded $800,000 in 1995 and $1 million last year. The company has been a major provider of Medicaid transportation services in the Richmond area since 1990.

John B. Russell Jr., another lawyer representing Del Cardayre, said Van Go simply was ``doing what they thought they had permission to do and what the regulations allowed.'' ILLUSTRATION: Graphic

THE CHARGES

Authorities say that Van Go Inc. billed Medicaid for individual

trips when carrying multiple patients, and that it billed at the

higher wheelchair van rate when transporting ambulatory patients in

nonwheelchair vans.

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