JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Duval DOGE Special Committee has submitted a series of questions to various entities it suspects could be a part of a Medicaid and Medicare fraud scheme tied to the city’s Telehealth provider.
Based on new questions and records requests submitted by the committee, the concerns surround JFRD’s Medical Director, who works in Baptist Health’s emergency room, and the connection between Baptist, Emergency Resources Group, which staffs the hospital’s emergency room, and the city’s telehealth provider Telescope Health.
“The first thing I was asking for is essentially communications between Telescope and the administration, so the other side of what I was asking for earlier. Same with Emergency Resources Group. Same thing with JFRD,” Councilmember Rory Diamond said (R-District 13) during Tuesday’s DOGE committee meeting.
Diamond, who is spearheading the inquiry, wants to know whether JFRD’s Medical Director is able to steer ambulance traffic and verify Telescope Health’s claim that it cannot bill Medicaid and Medicare.
He also wants to see the math behind Telescope’s claim it’s saved hospitals and the city $11 million, despite the fact the city’s indigent care provider UF Health continues to see indigent care costs rise.
“Everybody who comes and gets money from the City of Jacksonville has a great pitch, right? But there are millions of dollars going out the door. We could either put that back in the pockets of taxpayers, or we could use it for indigent care directly,” Diamond said.
On Monday, Jacksonville’s Chief Health Officer Dr. Sunil Joshi told Action News Jax it’s up to the hospitals to leverage Telescope’s telehealth services by referring patients to the service.
He noted UF Health’s share of those helped by Telescope is up from about ten to 20 percent.
“And believe me, they understand this program can be very helpful for them also,” Joshi said.
Joshi also pushed back on any suggestion of Medicaid or Medicare fraud.
“If you are seeing people without health insurance, you’re not billing an insurance company, how could you possibly be committing Medicaid or Medicare fraud? I mean, you cannot,” Joshi said.
There’s no formal requirement for the questions submitted by the committee on Tuesday to be complied with, at least not at this point.
If the committee doesn’t get the answers its looking for a special investigative committee could be convened, which would have subpoena power.
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