The Justice Department worked hard within the Medicare fraud prevention on Friday. No-nonsense health care reform was introduced in these states to health care business owners, medical billers, nurses, and doctors in coordinated raids by the feds. Authorities announced charges against 94 individuals in what is being called the largest coordinated series of federal health care fraud cases in U.S. history. The Medicare fraud defendants are accused of milking the Medicare system out of more than $ 251 million.
Medicare fraud sting snares full spectrum of crooks
Federal agents made arrests at alleged Medicare fraud operations in five cities Friday in Miami, Baton Rouge, La., Brooklyn, N.Y., Detroit and Houston. ABC News reports that nurses, doctors, and even health care professionals accepted extra money from medical service providers for things that were never even done. Although none of these happened, Medicare was charged for all of them, including physical and occupational therapy, HIV infusions, and home health care.
Medicare fraud crackdown key to health care reform
To battle health care fraud as part of its health care reform agenda, the Obama administration launched the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team in 2009. The team uses electronic claims data and the threat of federal prosecution to seek out the illicit billing that has become a staple of Medicare fraud. The arrests came as Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius held the first in a series of regional “summits” on health care fraud prevention in Miami. This was an opportunity needed as part of the health care reform agenda by the Obama administration.
Medicare fraud shown effortlessly
Some of the Medicare fraud operations uncovered in Friday’s raids were brazen. The Washington Post reports that in one alleged $ 70 million scheme operated out of a Brooklyn, N.Y., clinic, more than 1,000 cash kickbacks were paid to Medicare beneficiaries out of a “kickback room”. There was one investigation showing people lined up for illegal payments with a sign of a woman speaking in Russian, “Don’t gossip.”.
Medicare fraud often happens in Miami
The Medicare fraud arrests were made by more than 350 agents for the Health and Human Services’ inspector general’s office and also the FBI. This was probably the most offenders caught at one time since Medicare began in 1965. Many of the individuals were arrested in Miami on the exact same day as the fraud summit. Federal indictments shows us that in the Miami-Dade county, there were 25 suspects arrested and charged for stealing $ 103 million in fraudulent health care claims.
More details accessible at these websites
ABC News
abcnews.go.com/WN/government-agents-uncover-medicare-fraud-operations-cities/story?id=11180320&page=2
Washington Post
washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/16/AR2010071603876.html?hpid=topnews
Miami Herald
miamiherald.com/2010/07/16/1733354/crackdown-nets-about-100-medicare.html
