Last week, the Obama administration revealed new federal enforcement measures to combat health care fraud, which costs taxpayers billions of dollars a year. At a health care fraud summit in Los Angeles, Attorney General Eric Holder and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced that their agencies were teaming up to combat Medicare and Medicaid fraud. The initiative, launched in May 2009, has resulted in 580 criminal convictions and $2.5 billion in recovered payments.
"Our health care system is essentially under siege by criminals intent on lining their own pockets at the expense of the American taxpayers," Holder told the gathering of law enforcement officials, regulators, health care executives and others. "In Los Angeles, these crimes have reached crisis proportions, driving up health care costs for everyone and also bringing the long-term solvency of our essential Medicare and Medicaid programs into doubt."
Sebelius announced that the CMMS has created a new regulation that will require suppliers of prosthetics and other items to maintain records of their orders as well as remain open to the public for a minimum of 30 hours per week. In addition, cell phones and pagers will no longer be accepted as primary business phone numbers.
Declared Sebelius, "The days when you could just hang a shingle out over a desk and start submitting claims are over."
© Arc, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to TMSalesOperations@arc-network.com. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.