July 26, 2011 | Comments Off on Criminalizing Medicare
Posted by Frank Ciesla
At a recent meeting of the American Health Lawyers Association in Boston, the representatives of various government agencies, the U.S. Attorney’s office from various states, the Justice Department representatives, the OIG representatives and the Attorneys from CMS all made a similar point. That point was very simple, it is their feeling that recoupment, debarment, and civil monetary penalties have proven to them insufficient to stem the Medicare and Medicaid fraud. Therefore, they intend to shift their focus to using the criminal law to prosecute individuals who commit Medicare fraud.
As you can see in the attached article, the FBI is starting in New Jersey, a public advertizing campaign to encourage the public to report “Healthcare Fraud”.