Aggressive practices by local hospital and its billing services
I'm concerned the local hospital is trying to bill Part B services under Part A to allow them to charge Medicare a higher fee for routine outpatient services that should be billed under Part B.
(edited) Problem 1: Like many hospitals, the hospital bought some outpatient facilities years ago. Its electronic service is now being used to try to require me to sign online an untitled document that assumes that I am receiving services at a hospital when I'm clearly NOT at the hospital itself.
CoPilot (an AI on Windows) had told me that current Medicare regulations require the actual facility providing the service to do the billing, but last year, the billing service created a bill under Part A last year which charged Medicare more money (which Medicare paid) and which also charged me a higher amount of money. However, my understanding is that imaging for non-hospitalized outpatients done at an outpatient facility (that is NOT on the grounds of the hospital) aren't supposed to be billed under Part A.
I think that in the past, it *was* permitted for hospitals to bill Medicare a higher fee (edited) for services from outpatient facilities that are owned by the hospital, but my understanding from CoPilot is that Medicare rules do not permit that now. Yet, if that's truly the case, many people still don't understand that, including people staffing the usual Medicare phone number. (I looked at the Medicare guidance, and it's not easy to understand.)
Problem 2. How can I get a definitive answer about whether it's appropriate for the hospital to blur the lines between the hospital and the outpatient facility, have me sign an electronic document (that I can't change) as if I'm at the hospital when I'm not, and then bill Medicare under Part A as if I got imaging services at the hospital? (I don't want to file a fraud complaint that might not be justified.)