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Committee asks Department of Insurance to review billing codes after conflicting testimony about Dartmouth Health practices
Summary
Committee members said they received conflicting testimony about billing practices involving Dartmouth Health and will ask the Department of Insurance to run claims data to verify whether disputed coding is occurring.
Committee members ended the executive session by discussing testimony from a recent hearing in which witnesses alleged certain billing or coding practices by Dartmouth Health. Members said they heard conflicting accounts: one witness asserted the practice was occurring, while Dartmouth Health’s testimony denied it.
The chair said the committee requested that the Department of Insurance provide claims data — notably from the All Claims database — to determine whether the billing codes at issue are actually being used in practice. The committee described the matter as a serious concern that could amount to false public claims if the evidence is contradictory.
“We were told this isn’t happening, then someone else testified that ‘we have billing codes that show it is happening,’” the chair said, describing the committee’s next step to request data from the Department of Insurance and to confer with Dartmouth Health to resolve the discrepancy.
Senators said the All Claims database and cooperation from Dartmouth Health should provide adequate data to “run this to ground,” and pledged to follow up. No formal vote was recorded on this procedural direction; it was described as a committee follow-up and request for information.
The committee adjourned after returning to open session.
