Peter Budetti, head of program integrity at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, retired from the agency on September 11, according to an internal email from CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner. Budetti was the deputy administrator and the first director of the Center for Program Integrity.

Prior to taking over the fraud-fighting reins at CMS, Dr. Peter Budetti was a respected professor at Northwestern University School of Medicine, and was formerly the Chairman of the Board at Taxpayers Against Fraud. He accepted President Obama’s appointment because he believed that he could make a real difference in the health care fraud arena. He was right.

In his first week at CMS, Dr. Budetti placed the health care industry on notice that CMS would utilize the latest data mining technologies to uncover fraud schemes. He also encouraged the agency to reject its “pay and chase” fraud-fighting approach. Both initiatives have, to a large degree, been embraced by CMS.

More information for whistleblowers is located at the Nolan Auerbach & White website.