Medicare Fraud

Every year, we lose billions of dollars to fraud in federal and state health care programs. Every dollar we lose to fraud and abuse is a dollar that is not available to provide home care to seniors, to treat HIV and AIDS, to immunize children, and to discover new treatments for cancer and other diseases. Some fraud schemes even pose a direct threat to the health and safety of patients. Many instances of health care fraud sug­gest that existing control systems do not work the way we imagine they should. Often the manner in which schemes are revealed suggests detection is more luck than system. Whistleblower lawsuits have exposed billing by health care providers for services not rendered, billing for products not delivered, misrepresenting services, unbundling services, billing for medically unnecessary services, duplicate billing, increasing units of service which are subject to a payment rate, falsifying cost reports resulting in increased payment to the health care provider, kickbacks, and on and on. Healthcare fraud is still going strong and this blog is intended to keep readers up to date with all healthcare fraud related news and to provide commentary when warranted. This blog also contains an array of laws and regulations concerning healthcare fraud set out in an easy to read format.

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Health Policy

Medicare Fraud Boosts Home Health Spending, According to New GAO Report

by Nolan and Auerbach on March 13, 2009

Medicare spending on home health was $12.9 billion in 2006—that’s up 44% since 2002, according to Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released March 13, 2009. Upcoding, by home health agencies, as well as other fraudulent and abusive practices, such as kickbacks and billing for services not rendered, contributed to the rise in Medicare spending for [...]

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New York Hospital Agrees to Settle Qui Tam

by Nolan and Auerbach on March 6, 2009

The Government announced today that a former employee  of Victory Memorial Hospital’s qui tam lawsuit has resulted in a settlement with the United States of at least $2.3 million to resolve claims that the hospital defrauded the Medicare program. The Medicare Fraud settlement covers allegations that Victory Memorial submitted Cost Reports for 1996 and 1997 [...]

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President’s Proposed 2010 Budget Aims to Increase Revenue by Reducing Fraud, Abuse

by Nolan and Auerbach on March 5, 2009

President Obama’s fiscal year 2010 proposed budget estimates that reducing health care fraud, waste and abuse could save the government about $5 billion in a decade’s time. The budget pledges nearly $1.5 billion for its Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control Program (HCFAC), including a $311 million increase in HCFAC funding. The budget takes aim [...]

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South Florida Company Bilks Medicare Out of $170 Million

by Nolan and Auerbach on August 28, 2007

R&I Billing was charged with fraudulently billing Medicare $170 million for infusions of HIV drugs. The scheme worked as follows: “From roughly October 2002 through April 2006, HIV clinics in South Florida serviced by R&I Billing allegedly provided bills to Medicare that indicated patients were being injected with excessive amounts of HIV medications…Based on claims [...]

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