{"id":418058,"date":"2025-12-01T21:44:21","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T21:44:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/418058\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T21:44:21","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T21:44:21","slug":"austin-emergency-center-settles-federal-covid-billing-allegations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/418058\/","title":{"rendered":"Austin Emergency Center settles federal COVID billing allegations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An operator of Austin-area standalone emergency medical centers has agreed to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-wdtx\/pr\/austin-emergency-center-and-affiliates-pay-429231-settle-civil-false-claims-act\" data-link=\"native\" class=\"\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a settlement of federal allegations<\/a> that it inflated claims for COVID-19 testing and related services during the pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>Federal prosecutors said the company charged the federal program more than it charged cash-paying patients for certain COVID-19 tests and improperly \u201cupcoded\u201d claims to receive larger reimbursements by billing for higher-level services than were actually provided during drive-through screenings.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThose who have used or plan to use healthcare as a means to unlawfully enrich themselves should take note that the Department of Justice is actively looking for opportunities to recover stolen pandemic-era funds on behalf of the American people,\u201d \u00a0U.S. Attorney Justin R. Simmons said in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The company did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n<p>While the settlement resolves the allegations, it is not an admission of liability by Austin Emergency Center, nor a concession by the government that its claims were unfounded.<\/p>\n<p>The limited liability companies named\u00a0by the U.S. attorney as being involved in the settlement are Austin ER LLC, AEC ER 4 LLC, Pahala Ventures LLC, AEC Physicians PLLC\u00a0and AEC Pflugerville\u00a0LLC.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The company has five ER locations in Austin and one in Pflugerville. They are:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Riverside:<\/strong> 2020\u00a0E. Riverside Drive<\/p>\n<p><strong>Arboretum:<\/strong> 10407\u00a0Jollyville Road<\/p>\n<p><strong>South Lamar:<\/strong> 4015 S. Lamar\u00a0Blvd.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Anderson Mill:<\/strong> 13435 U.S. 183\u00a0N.., No.\u00a0311<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mueller:<\/strong> 1801\u00a0E 51st St, Building H<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pflugerville:<\/strong> 15100 FM 1825,\u00a0Pflugerville<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An operator of Austin-area standalone emergency medical centers has agreed to\u00a0a settlement of federal allegations that it inflated&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":418059,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[210,1141,1142,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-418058","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health-care","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-health-care","10":"tag-healthcare","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115646501259259767","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418058\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}