Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement
Feds Keep a Steady Focus on Opioid Fraud and Abuse
This past summer, the Department of Justice (DOJ) added a Strike Force team in Philadelphia. The feds are adding another regional group to cover Appalachia with two bases in Nashville, Tennessee and Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky, the OIG says in a release. However, the new team will focus on illegal opioid prescriptions, the OIG indicates. “While the opioid epidemic continues to inflict untold pain and suffering on people across the country, the devastation in the Appalachian region and adjacent areas has been particularly staggering,” said Brian A. Benczkowski, Assistant Attorney General in the DOJ Criminal Division. The mission of the Appalachian Regional Prescription Opioid (ARPO) Strike Force “is to identify and investigate health care fraud schemes in the Appalachian region and surrounding areas, and to effectively and efficiently prosecute medical professionals and others involved in the illegal prescription and distribution of opioids,” the DOJ says. The ARPO location joins the already existing Medicare Strike Force cities of Miami; Los Angeles; Detroit; Houston; Brooklyn, New York; Baton Rouge and New Orleans, Louisiana; Tampa, Florida; Chicago; and Dallas, along with a Corporate Strike Force in Washington, D.C., the DOJ says. Read more about the ARPO Strike Force at www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-s-criminal-division-creates-appalachian-regional-prescription-opioid.
Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement
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