As the generational wave of baby boomers flows into the Medicare program in the coming years, the pool of government funds exposed to fraudulent schemes will swell. In response, the federal government is increasingly securing the walls of the Medicare Trust Fund, looking for health care fraudsters who are illegally draining Medicare dollars. These actions seem to be working, for the federal government pumped over $4 billion in ill-gotten gains back into the US Treasury during fiscal year 2011.

Huge recoveries were spotlighted in a recent report on the Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control (HCFAC) program. The HCFAC program was created by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, and it is jointly run by HHS and DOJ, with the goal of coordinating federal, state, and local law enforcement activities surrounding health care fraud.

According to the report, the HCFAC program has been responsible for recovering over $21 billion since 1997. The report also revealed that DOJ set records by filing criminal charges against 1,430 defendants and convicting 743 health care fraud defendants in fiscal 2011. Medicare fraud will continue to account for the highest drain on taxpayer dollars.

More information for whistleblowers is located at the Nolan & Auerbach, P.A. website.