Raytel Cardiac settles with Mass. AG

Raytel Cardiac Services Inc. has agreed to pay $31,000 to the state as part of an agreement with Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley to settle allegations of excessive billing, Coakley's office said yesterday.

According to Coakley's office, Raytel of Connecticut wrongfully collected about $2,000 in fees over a roughly four-year period from members of the Group Insurance Commission, or GIC, for pacemaker and cardiac monitoring services; GIC provides and administers health insurance and other benefits to Massachusetts state employees, retirees, their dependents, and survivors.

Under an agreement filed in Suffolk Superior Court, Raytel will refund money wrongfully collected from GIC members, pay $31,000 to the attorney general's Local Consumer Aid Fund, and take corrective action to reform its policies going forward, Coakley's office said.

In a statement, Raytel said that it manages hundreds of thousands of patient interactions annually and that it had cooperated with the attorney general's office.

"Even though the number of impacted claims is quite low, given the time span, we take every incident seriously," added Raytel's statement, which noted, "Our goal is to bill each insurance claim appropriately and accurately."
(By Chris Reidy, Globe staff)