Home Health & Hospice Week
Massive Fraud Takedown Includes Home Care Providers
Cases tick the usual fraud hot spot boxes. More proof of the feds’ increased fraud fighting efforts is in the latest “national health care fraud takedown.” Attorney General Jeff Sessions and HHS Secretary Alex M. Azar III announced the “largest ever health care fraud enforcement action” involving 601 charged defendants across 58 federal districts for their alleged participation in health care fraud schemes involving more than $2 billion in false billings, according to a Department of Justice release. “This Department of Justice has taken historic new steps to go after fraudsters, including hiring more prosecutors and leveraging the power of data analytics,” Sessions says in the release. “By every measure we are more effective at finding and prosecuting medical fraud than ever.” The OIG notes that “the money taxpayers spend fighting fraud is an excellent investment: For every $1 spent on health care-related fraud and abuse investigations in the last 3 years, more than $4 has been recovered.” This year’s takedown focused on opioid fraud and abuse, but there still were plenty of home care fraud cases too. In Texas: For example, “a home health agency owner was arrested on a criminal complaint for a $2.6 million health care fraud scheme,” DOJ notes. In Michigan: “A physician was charged in separate kickback conspiracies with two home health agency owners, which resulted in more than $12 million in fraudulent insurance billings,” the release adds. In Chicago: A “home health fraud and kickback conspiracy … resulted in more than $6.2 million paid by Medicare based on the fraudulent billings.” In Florida: “A physician and clinic owner were charged with a conspiracy to defraud Medicare of more than $2.8 million for fraudulent home health billing,” DOJ says.
Home Health & Hospice Week
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Massive Fraud Takedown Includes Home Care Providers
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