Department of Justice and HHS Release 2009 Report on Health Care Fraud
Approximately $2.5 billion deposited to the Medicare Trust Fund - an increase of more than half a billion dollars over the total collected in 2008 - and $1.6 billion in judgments and settlements were among the accomplishments in curbing health care fraud and abuse in 2009 that Attorney General Eric Holder and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced on March 13, 2010.
On Thursday, the agencies released the 2009 Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control Program Annual Report (HCFAC), which outlines the U.S. government's health care fraud prevention and enforcement achievements in the last fiscal year. "This report shows the success of DOJ and HHS' collaborative efforts to prevent, identify and prosecute the most egregious instances of health care fraud," the agencies announced in a press release at http://blogs.usdoj.gov/blog/archives/796.
Additional accomplishments included:
- The Justice Department's Criminal Division, in cooperation with U.S. Attorneys' Offices around the country, opened more than 1,000 new criminal health care fraud investigations and had more than 1,600 health care fraud criminal investigations pending.
- The department indicted an "all-time high" number of health care fraud defendants — more than 800 — in nearly 500 cases filed and obtained close to 600 convictions. The Justice Department's Civil Division opened nearly 900 new civil health care fraud investigations and had more than 1,100 pending cases.
"Last year also brought a critical step forward in the fight against health care fraud with the creation of the Health Care Fraud Prevention & Enforcement Action Team, or HEAT," according to the press release. "By making the fight against both civil and criminal health care fraud a Cabinet-level priority, DOJ and HHS are bringing to bear the full resources of the federal government against individuals and corporations who illegally divert taxpayer resources for their own gain."
The full report can be accessed at http://www.justice.gov/dag/pubdoc/hcfacreport2009.pdf.
|
