Government
New Medicare anti-fraud team announced
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted June 1, 2009
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Attorney General Eric Holder announced May 20 the creation of a new initiative to combat fraud in Medicare -- the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team.
HEAT will include senior officials from HHS and the Dept. of Justice who will build upon the successes of Medicare fraud teams. Such teams have been operating in South Florida, which has convicted 146 defendants and secured $186 million in criminal fines and civil recoveries, and Los Angeles, where more than $55 million has been ordered in restitution to Medicare. Those divisions will be expanded, and new operations in Detroit and Houston will be created, HHS and the Justice Dept. announced.
HEAT will focus on prevention and also increase site visits to suppliers to prevent imposters from posing as legitimate providers of durable medical equipment. Other initiatives include increasing compliance training for suppliers and improving data sharing between law enforcement and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
A new Web site also has been created to raise the visibility of Medicare fraud (link).
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2009/06/01/gvbf0601.htm.
