Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced that his office has charged Dr. Xiaoyan Hu with defrauding Minnesota’s Medical Assistance (Medicaid) program out of over $1.6 million through her business, Chinese Acupuncture and Herb Center (CAH). Hu is charged by criminal complaint in Hennepin County District Court with 17 felony counts of theft by false representation.
As alleged in the criminal complaint, Hu and CAH defrauded the Medicaid program by:
- Overbilling for acupuncture services. As found in the investigation, CAH regularly billed for 1 hour of acupuncture services, even though its acupuncture sessions lasted no longer than 30 to 45 minutes, with many sessions lasting as little as 15 minutes.
- Billing for services not provided. The MFCU interviewed former CAH clients as part of its investigation. Some clients described going to CAH for a short period of time, yet when MFCU investigators reviewed CAH’s acupuncture billing, it found that the clinics billed for months — and on one occasion years — after the client stopped receiving services at the clinic.
CAH also billed for acupuncture services provided in a client’s home without the requisite prior authorization for a home visit, used acupuncture billing codes to bill for services that were not covered acupuncture services, and used the credentials of another acupuncturist to bill for services provided to clients with a particular insurance company after the company excluded CAH from its network. Hu also regularly signed, and directed others to sign, verifications for language interpreter services that did not happen.
