Obama admin. crackdown on health care fraud leads to 85% more prosecutions

[Playinghardball]

Source: Raw Story

Under the newly reformed health care laws championed by President Barack Obama, it's not only what people pay for insurance that will change, but also the way people pay for insurance crime.

The number of prosecutions for health insurance fraud is already 85 percent higher in 2011 than it was in 2010, thanks to new and expanded health care fraud teams created by the reform, USA Today reported.

Last year, the government recovered a record $4 billion from health care fraud under the nascent laws. This year, the haul could be even larger with the increase in prosecutions.

The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a non-partisan group at Syracuse University that submits Freedom of Information Requests and analyzes the findings, released data on the prosecutions from the Justice Department.



Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/08/30/obama-admin-crackdown-on-health-care-fraud-leads-to-85-more-prosecutions/

[aquart]

1. Thank God, they're doing something right.

[zalinda]

10. Amen ! n/t

[bemildred]

2. +1. nt

[lumpy]

3. Kudos to Obama's health care fraud team.

v

[Auggie]

4. 4 billion -- think of the health care that could buy for people who can't afford it!

[dwilso40641]

5. Maybe it would work

for military contractors as well.

[SoapBox]

6. The RushTurds and FuxNoose will claim that he is picking on "small business entrepreneurs"!

And the Limp Media will ignore this story...

[kenfrequed]

7. This needs to be communicated more effectively.

The white house communication team really needs to get on their game on this. This is a success story and they seem content to let it drift.

[hedgehog]

17. +1

[BNJMN]

18. The story of his entire presidency. But y'know...

...he doesn't watch the political pundits or pay attention to online forums.
:eyes:

Or so he says.
Maybe he has *someone* to do that for him.
But, you're right, they've dropped the ball repeatedly on conveying
what good things they've accomplished. At least, I hope they have accomplished
many great things I don't know about. Otherwise, that really is sad.

[Hotler]

8. Thak you Mr. President. n/t

[wilt the stilt]

9. Make it Retroactive- Rick Scott

let's reopen this one and send him to jail. He was never charged so technically he could be prosecuted.

[valerief]

12. Ah, wouldn't it be loverly? nt

[young but wise]

15. +1

I still can't believe that fucker won.

[No Elephants]

20. I can't even believe he had the nerve to run.

[Dragonfli]

22. I was just thinking the same thing! How far does the "look forward" protection extend

regarding charging the political class with crimes I wonder? Is he under the "above the law umbrella" or can we get the fraudulent bastard?
Or don't we really know how far the unconditional amnesty for Republican lawbreakers goes?

Does anyone have any details on how far the above the law thing goes?

[BREMPRO]

11. i had read that the estimate from the health care bill for recovery of Med fraud was $4.9 B...

over a 10 year period! this is almost ALL of that in just one year...talk about over performing estimates.. great work!

[valerief]

13. Feb 2011 article in the LA Times

More than 100 charged nationwide with Medicare fraud

A task force has brought criminal charges against doctors, nurses and healthcare executives. They are accused of cheating the government out of $225 million by making fraudulent claims, taking kickbacks or money laundering.
February 17, 2011|By Richard A. Serrano, Washington BureauThe federal government's Medicare Fraud Task Force on Thursday brought criminal charges against doctors, nurses and healthcare company executives — 111 people in nine cities — in what officials described as the nation's "largest-ever federal healthcare fraud takedown."

Authorities said the defendants, including five in Los Angeles, cheated the government out of more than $225 million in false billing schemes that included fraudulent claims, kickback operations, money laundering and identity theft.

Continued at
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/feb/17/nation/la-na-medicare-fraud-20110218

[dotymed]

14. Too bad we still can't import medicines or actually negotiate

their prices...,like every other country in the world does.

Medicare for all would stop this profiteering.

[BNJMN]

16. That's good news. But, the part about 'what people pay for insurance'...how is that changing?

I thought costs were unaffected?
Anyone have information on this?

Thanks.

[No Elephants]

24. I know that a number of insurance companies raised their prices after the so-called

affordable health care law was enacted.

Beyond that, ya got me.

[windowpilot]

19. Private sector wins again

Over half of their claims of fraud, are from American Family Insurance Company, 533 total and are from Puerto Rico.:shrug:

[No Elephants]

25. Ah, catch 22

billion.

We always have to parse, don't we?

[LetTimmySmoke]

21. K&R for something good.

[BR_Parkway]

23. Dear Mr Bankster, you can get more money filing Medicare claims...

maybe then we could lock a few of them up!

[No Elephants]

27. Good try, but I'm guessing banksters know the difference between $4 billion and

almost $2 trillion.

Sigh.

[No Elephants]

26. The four billion bucks recovered last year is impressive. The number of prosecutions, less so,

but publicizing them may deter crooks anyway, so I have no problem with using the prosecution figure.

However, convictions are more meaningful than prosecutions. And so is recovery of misspent taxpayer dollars.