U.S. recovers $4 billion from health-care fraud cases.

The government recaptured a
record $4 billion last year
from pharmaceutical
companies, hospitals, doctors,
nursing homes and other
providers of care that
defrauded federal health-care
programs, the Obama
administration reported
Monday.
Administration officials also
called attention to new
federal rules intended to
prevent fraud - or detect it
early - that took effect
Monday as a result of the law
enacted last year to overhaul
the health-care system.
The annual report arrives as
the new Republican leaders in
the House are planning
congressional investigations,
suggesting that the
administration is not
aggressive in pursuing
government waste and fraud.
"We can save $125 billion in
simply not giving out money to
Medicare recipients that don't
exist for procedures that
didn't happen," Rep. Darrell E.
Issa (R-Calif.), the new
chairman of the House
Oversight and Government
Reform Committee, said this
month. Facing a hostile
climate in the House, several
senior aides to President
Obama heavily touted what
Health and Human Services
Secretary Kathleen Sebelius
called "unprecedented work
to safeguard taxpayer
dollars."
During the fiscal year ended in
September, the report says,
the government recovered
$4.02 billion from fraud cases
completed during that year or
in the past. That sum
compares with $2.6 billion
recovered in fiscal 2009 and
slightly more than $2 billion in
2008. Nearly three-fourths of
the total recouped last year
was from fraud against
Medicare, the federal health
insurance for older
Americans. The figures also
show that the government
won court judgments and out-
of-court settlements last year
amounting to $2.5 billion,
although not all that money
has been collected.
According to Justice
Department statistics, the
number of new criminal and
civil investigations of potential
health-care fraud, most
involving Medicare, increased
slightly last year. And the
number of defendants
convicted of such fraud grew
to more than 700 in 2010 from
fewer than 600 the previous
two years.
Less than a week after the
Republican-led House voted to
repeal the new health-care
law, administration officials
continued to focus attention
on provisions they think the
public will like.
Sebelius pointed out that the
new rules authorized by the
law, which took effect
Monday, require more
thorough screenings for
health-care workers,
companies and institutions
that want to participate in
Medicare, Medicaid or the
Children's Health Insurance
Program. And if such
participants are accused of
fraud, government officials
can stop payments to them
while they conduct an
investigation.

Source: Http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/24/AR2011012405939.html