Catching Medical Fraud in its Tracks

In recent news, as reported by the Los Angeles Times, top Obama administration officials have just outlined new federal enforcement plans to fight again health care fraud. They are finding that the quickly expanding phenomenon of health care fraud is costing taxpayers billions of dollars each year.Health care thieves have become adept at either recruiting real people or creating phantom patients and submitting phony claims.At a health care fraud summit in Los Angeles recently, Atty. Gen Eric H. Holder Jr. said, “Our healthcare system is essentially under siege by criminals intent on lining their own pockets at the expense of the American taxpayers.” Together, the Attorney General’s office and the office of Health and Human Services are targeting fraud in the federal Medicare and Medicaid programs. So far, their initiative, launched in May of 2009, has produced over 580 criminal convictions and has recovered more than $2.5 billion in fraudulent proceeds.In addition to the regulations they had already put into place, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have just issued a final regulation that will protect seniors against fraudulent medical equipment and supplies vendors.