NEW BRAUNFELS, Texas--In a May 4 letter to CMS Administrator Mark McClellan, the nation's largest power chair provider said it has been unfairly targeted by the federal government in its attempts to drive down power mobility utilization.

"The barrage of punitive actions taken against [The Scooter Store] over the past two months lead inescapably to one conclusion: that the federal government is targeting TSS as a high-volume supplier of power mobility equipment in order to drive down utilization," said TSS counsel Marc Racicot of Washington, D.C.-based Bracewell & Giuliani LLP.

The letter is the latest volley in an ongoing legal battle between the national provider and HHS.

Earlier this year, The Scooter Store filed suit against HHS, claiming the government wrongfully denied hundreds of its power chair claims and had illegally requested patient documentation in addition to a physician-signed CMN for reimbursement. On April 29, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a countersuit against TSS, alleging the provider had submitted fraudulent claims to Medicare and Medicaid.

In last week's letter, Racicot said that TSS has received 990 post-pay review requests from the DMERCs. "These information collection requests are very difficult--if not impossible--to satisfy because they require, upon penalty of automatic denial of a claim, the production and submission of physicians' chart notes. Physicians are not required by law to chart their notes in the manner the DMERCs have arbitrarily decided they should chart, as the American Medical Association has stated. Moreover, suppliers cannot force physicians to turn over their chart notes so that a supplier can submit them to the federal government."

For more than 18 months, the company has also been "subjected to undercover investigations and repetitive demands for information," Racicot said.

"Like the information collections, the allegations made by Justice Department lawyers are baseless and punitive in nature. Simply put, allowing such actions to proceed is just plain wrong. It is incredibly unfair, wholly inconsistent with the principles of good government, and threatens the very existence of TSS," the letter stated.

According to the DOJ, since 1997 The Scooter Store has billed Medicare for claims worth more than $400 million.