The Fight Against Fraud In The US Health Care System

The Fight Against Fraud In The US Health Care System.
The Department of Justice secured $3 billion in non-military settlements and judgments in cases involving chicanery against the ministry in the fiscal year ending Sept 30, 2010, Tony West, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division, announced today. This includes $2,5 billion in vigorousness punctiliousness fraud recoveries-the largest in history-and represents the aide-de-camp largest annual recovery of civil fraud claims bestvito.gdn. Moreover, amounts recovered under the False Claims Act since January 2009 have eclipsed any antecedent two-year period with $5,4 billion in taxpayer dollars returned to federal programs and the Treasury.

Recoveries since 1986, when Congress basically strengthened the courtly False Claims Act, now total more than $27 billion. "Under Attorney General Eric Holder's leadership, our litigious pursuit of fraud under the False Claims Act has resulted in the largest two-year gain of taxpayer dollars in the history of the Justice Department," Assistant Attorney General West said. "Nowhere is this more illusory than in our success in fighting health mindfulness fraud storys. Since January 2009, the Civil Division, together with the US Attorneys' offices, commenced more form care fraud investigations, secured larger fines and judgments, and recovered more taxpayer dollars down the drain to health care fraud than in any other two-year period".

Fighting fraud committed against consumers health care programs is a top priority for the Obama Administration. On May 20, 2009, Attorney General Eric Holder and Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), announced the formation of a untrained interagency task force, the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT), to spread coordination and optimize reprehensible and civil enforcement. These efforts not only protect the Medicare Trust Fund for seniors and the Medicaid program for the country's neediest citizens, they also sequel in higher quality strength care at a more reasonable price.

The record health care fraud civil recoveries of $2,5 billion announced today made up 83 percent of the year's absolute civil humbug recoveries. HHS reaped the biggest recoveries, largely attributable to its Medicare and Medicaid programs. Recoveries were also made by the Office of Personnel Management, which administers the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, the Department of Defense for its TRICARE protection program and the Department of Veterans Affairs, in the midst others.

Assistant Attorney General West prominent that since January 2009, the Civil Division, together with the US Attorneys' offices, set a two-year track record for health care fraud enforcement efforts, recovering $4,6 billion in taxpayer funds under the False Claims Act from healthfulness supervision providers and others in the industry, and securing 25 criminal convictions as well as more than $3 billion in fines, forfeitures, reinstatement and disgorgement under the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (FDCA).

The False Claims Act cases successfully resolved this year not only included pay schemes implicating federal well-being care programs, but also wartime and other government procurement contracts; grants for small businesses, bullet-proof vests for statute enforcement, and other purposes; federally insured mortgages; federal and Indian mineral leases; and many other federal programs. Assistant Attorney General West commended the respectable efforts of the Civil Division's occupation attorneys, the US Attorneys' Offices, and the federal and government agencies that investigate and support False Claims Act prosecutions, remarking that "their commitment and the cooperation we enjoy allow us to bring all of our resources to bear in combating fraud against both the federal and report governments".

Most of the cases resulting in recoveries were brought to the government by whistleblowers under the False Claims Act, the federal government's beginning weapon in the battle against fraud. In 1986, Senator Charles Grassley and Representative Howard Berman led prospering efforts in Congress to amend the False Claims Act to change the statute's qui tam (or whistleblower) provisions, which reassure whistleblowers to come forward with allegations of fraud. Assistant Attorney General West paid esteem to the 1986 amendments' sponsors, saying: "Without their foresight, these recoveries would not have been possible". He also expressed his thankfulness to Senator Patrick J Leahy, Chairman of the Senate's Judiciary Committee, and to Senator Grassley and Representative Berman for their hold up of the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act of 2009, which made additional improvements to the False Claims Act and other flimflam artist statutes.