Wednesday, December 16, 2009

$61M Medicare fraud crackdown

One of President Obama’s thrusts when he became president was to combat Medicare fraud. Obama promised to crackdown on criminals who steal millions of dollars from Medicare through fraudulent claims.

To pursue this commitment, the joint DOJ-HHS Medicare Fraud Strike Force had been tasked to combat Medicare fraud by using Medicare data analysis techniques and increasing focus on community policing. The strike force operated in various cities like Los Angeles, Miami, Detroit, Brooklyn, Houston, Tampa and Baton Rouge.

In one of the major crackdowns in Medical fraud, the strike force was able to arrest 26 suspects including one doctor and several nurses. The suspects were accused of running a scam to tap a Medicare program that paid very high rates to patients. Moreover, these suspects allegedly billed Medicare for unnecessary medical equipment, physical therapy and HIV infusions.

With Medicare fraud, the cost of health care had been raised causing additional burden to American taxpayers. Consequently, when the healthcare system had been defrauded, all Americans were being defrauded. Thus, this issue should be a concern for everyone.

The above suspects were still presumed innocent until proven otherwise. To prove their innocence, they need to hire a Medicare fraud defense lawyer.