Federal officials credited the new healthcare law for providing
the authority that led to arrest of 89 people in separate Medicare fraud
cases last week. The arrests were made in eight cities by the Health Care Fraud Prevention &
Enforcement Action Team (HEAT), and CQ reports
that they are expected to recover about $223 million to Medicare.
The HEAT Team is a cooperative effort between the Department
of Justice and the Department of Health and Human Services.
The Medicare fee for service program processes more
than a billion claims per year, and detecting false claims can be a dubious task.
The Obama administration estimates that $60 billion per year is lost to
fraudulent claims. Since 2007, however, Attorney General Holder and HHS Secretary
Sebelius say that federal official have brought 1,500 Medicare fraud cases
against individuals who falsely billed Medicare for more than $5 billion.
Included in the arrests last week were 25 people in Miami
who falsely billed a total of $44 million in home health care, mental health,
occupational and physical therapy, medical equipment, and HIV infusion charges.
Four of the 25 were two nurses, a paramedic, and a radiographer. Another case
included three defendants who bribed Medicare recipients in order to use their information
for the purpose of billing $20 million in false charges. Arrests also took
place in Detroit, Houston, Baton Rouge, Los Angeles Brooklyn, Tampa Bay, and
Chicago.
Read the full Department of Justice press release here.
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