JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The city’s top health official is defending Jacksonville’s embattled Telehealth provider, Telescope, after the company became the target of a new Duval DOGE subcommittee.
When Mable Doscher suffered a heart attack in January, she was uninsured, and if not for Baptist Health connecting her with Telescope, she may have gone without continuing care.
“It helped me out a lot cause by now I would not have any medication and, God knows, probably would have had another heart attack,” Doscher said.
Telescope Health has come under the microscope in recent weeks.
A Duval DOGE subcommittee has been formed to investigate whether the $1.5 million the company receives from the city is a good use of taxpayer dollars and whether it may be engaged in Medicare or Medicaid fraud.
“There are a lot of names showing up and the same entities. There’s a contract I don’t think we should have at all that’s costing the city millions of dollars,” Councilmember Rory Diamond said (R-District 13). ”And so, the question is, why did that happen, and why is it going to these places? Why do the same names keep popping up? So, I just want to answer those questions and get to the bottom of it. To me, it looks like corruption.”
Jacksonville Chief Health Officer Dr. Sunil Joshi argued Telescope is a net benefit to the city, saving hospitals and the city millions by diverting the uninsured away from emergency rooms.
It’s the program’s sole focus on the uninsured that makes him scratch his head when he hears accusations of fraud.
“These are folks who do not have health insurance. So, if you are seeing people without health insurance, you’re not billing an insurance company, how could you possibly be committing Medicaid or Medicare fraud? I mean, you cannot,” Dr. Joshi said.
While some city leaders have questioned why Baptist, rather than the city’s indigent care hospital, UF Health, seems to benefit the most from the service, Joshi noted it’s the hospitals themselves that direct traffic to Telescope Health, not the other way around.
“You may have more of those folks that would have gone to one hospital over the other, but it really is how aggressive those hospitals are at supporting Healthlink Jax so they themselves can benefit from the program,” Joshi said.
And for patients like Doscher, who is now back on insurance, they’d like to see city leaders focus their attention elsewhere.
“Instead of worrying about taking down something that’s actually helping people, working-class people that trying to work for a living and stay healthy at the same time,” Doscher said.
The Duval DOGE subcommittee is expected to get to work in the coming weeks.
If it runs into trouble getting information from Telescope, a Special Investigatory committee with subpoena power could be convened.
Telescope Health has denied any and all accusations of fraud and released a statement last week addressing those claims.
“These erroneous accusations distract from Healthlink JAX’s 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,” Telescope Health’s CEO, Dr. Matthew Thopson, said in an emailed statement.
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