Alleviate Wellness Center Received Unallowable Medicare Payments for Chiropractic Services

Alleviate Wellness Center (the Center), which had three offices in Southern California, received unallowable Medicare payments for all 100 of the sampled chiropractic services we reviewed. On the basis of our sample results, we estimated that the Center received overpayments of at least $482,000 for calendar years 2012 and 2013. These overpayments occurred because the Center did not have adequate policies and procedures to ensure that chiropractic services billed to Medicare were medically necessary and adequately documented.