“Paying kickbacks to doctors for referrals. Surgically implanting unneeded heart monitors. Aggravating troubled teenagers during psychiatric sessions to worsen their mental health.”
“Health-care providers accused of bilking taxpayers by inflating Medicare or Medicaid expenses have paid billions of dollars in settlements with the federal government over the past decade for a variety of transgressions, some of which risked patients’ lives. Now the money is flowing the other way.”
“Companies that settled cases involving overbilling or fraud — among them…”
“Despite warnings from Congress that HHS hasn’t done enough to avoid paying fraudulent claims, neither program denied coronavirus aid to providers that settled claims in the past.”
“In November, HHS enacted new regulations intended to replace its “pay and chase” system, which reimburses providers first, then has auditors investigate those it thinks engaged in fraud, an approach it acknowledges is “expensive and inefficient” and leaves billions of dollars unrecoverable. The new guidelines permit HHS to deny Medicare enrollment to providers that have exhibited “a pattern or practice of abusive” charges…” Read the full article here.
Source: HHS Doled Out $50 Billion to Firms Accused of Medicare Fraud (2) – By David Kocieniewski and Caleb Melby, June 16, 2020. Bloomberg Law.
