Stepped-up Medicare fraud enforcement snags $2.5B Las Vegas Sun
Monday, May 17, 2010 | 12:24 a.m.
The government says it recovered $2.5 billion in overpayments for the Medicare trust fund last year as the Obama administration focused attention on fraud enforcement efforts in the health care industry.
Investigators have new tools this year to help crack down on health care fraud, with the Justice Department and the Health and Human Services Department working cooperatively to police companies. The newly enacted Affordable Care Act is designed to lengthen prison sentences in criminal cases and the new law provides an additional $300 million over the next 10 years for stronger enforcement. It also gives the government new authority to step up oversight of companies participating in Medicare and Medicaid.
"We're going to attack fraud at every stage of the process," Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Thursday at a news conference.
Attorney General Eric Holder said "as long as health care fraud pays and goes unpunished, our health care system will remain under siege."
