Fraud & Abuse:
Feds Bring Enforcement HEAT To New Areas
Published on Wed Nov 18, 2009
Fraud busts show just how serious regulators are. Fla., or Baton Rouge, La., get ready for some major scrutiny. The Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services are expanding the Medicare Fraud Strike Force program to those three areas, DOJ and HHS say in a release. The strike forces, run under the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT) initiative, already operate in South Florida, Los Angeles, Detroit, and Houston. "When President Obama took office, he promised a new commitment to cracking down on the criminals who steal billions of dollars from Medicare each year through fraudulent claims," HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius says in an HHS release. "Today, HHS and DOJ are following through on that commitment." HEAT's enforcement is no joke. The Florida strike force recently secured indictments against 15 Miami area residents, including a physician and six RNs, for Medicare fraud related to excessive outlier [...]