Jacksonville councilman alleges fraud, conflicts in city\u2019s telehealth contracts<\/a><\/p>\nThe allegations prompted an emergency meeting two days later. <\/p>\n
Just hours before that meeting, Telescope Health sent a statement responding to what it called \u201cfalse allegations\u201d about Healthlink JAX, saying in part that it has not \u201cengaged in fraud, and any allegation to the contrary is entirely false and without merit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Diamond also brought up claims of Medicare and Medicaid fraud, specifically about patients being sent unnecessarily to emergency rooms, costing the city money.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf that\u2019s happening, that\u2019s a huge problem,\u201d Diamond said. \u201cI can\u2019t stand corruption. I\u2019m really angry about it, so I just want to get to the bottom of it, get it all out in the sunshine, let\u2019s ask the questions, let\u2019s get the answers.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Telescope Health said \u201cit cannot and has not billed Medicare, Medicaid or other payors for Healthlink JAX patients\u201d because the program involves facilitating health care access to uninsured patients.<\/p>\n
Read Telescope Health\u2019s full statement below:<\/p>\n
\u201cAt no time has Telescope Health engaged in fraud, and any allegation to the contrary is entirely false and without merit. To be unequivocally clear, Telescope Health\u2019s contract for the Healthlink JAX program involves facilitating access to healthcare to uninsured patients. Therefore, Telescope Health cannot and has not billed Medicare, Medicaid or other payors for Healthlink JAX patients. Furthermore, no City of Jacksonville official has a financial stake in Telescope Health.<\/p>\n
These erroneous accusations distract from Healthlink JAX\u2019s mission to make care accessible to all Duval County residents. Telescope Health has faithfully managed more than 6,800 calls with Healthlink JAX patients and redirected more than $11.1 million in healthcare system costs since the service began in October 2024. We will continue to serve the Jacksonville community with the utmost integrity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. Matthew Thompson, CEO and Co-Founder, Telescope Health<\/p>\n
Tuesday\u2019s Duval DOGE meeting is set to start at 11 a.m.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 The Special Committee on Duval DOGE will hold a meeting Tuesday to review additional information…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":51394,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[12813,116,118,117],"class_list":{"0":"post-51393","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-duval-doge","9":"tag-jacksonville","10":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","11":"tag-jacksonville-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}