The Obama Administration's fight against fraud reached a milestone this year, as it recovered a record-breaking $5.6 billion in government-wide fraud, the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) announced yesterday. The recovered funds soared 167 percent from 2008.
More than $2.9 billion was recovered in healthcare fraud in 2011, thanks in part to ramped-up prevention efforts that identified and stopped fraudsters sooner.
Expanding Medicare's Fraud Strike Force to nine cities also allowed the government to monitor Medicare data in real time and prosecute fraudulent activity more aggressively and quickly. This year, the Strike Force brought cases involving more than $1 billion in fraud--up from $384 million in 2008--with cases coming to resolution in only months, not years.
Adding to that success, the government also prevented $17.6 billion of wasteful payments this year.
To further root out Medicare fraud, HHS is calling on prescription drug plans to postpone payment on suspicious claims, such as enrollees using multiple physicians to acquire painkillers, the agency said.
"Prescription drug misuse has a serious human and financial cost," Health & Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a statement. "With these actions, we are going to continue to stop fraud before it happens and make sure that those who do defraud taxpayers are held accountable," she said.
To learn more:
- here's the HHS statement