2/3 of recovered funds come from federal health care fraud, Justice Dept. says
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/11/19/money.jpg caption="2/3 of recovered funds come from federal health care fraud, Justice Dept. says."]Washington (CNN) - Two of every three dollars federal authorities recovered from frauds against the government come from health care fraud, a top Justice Department official disclosed Thursday.
As the cost of proposed health care programs is front and center for the president and the Senate, Assistant Attorney General Tony West told reporters that $1.6 billion of the $2.4 billion recovered through lawsuits during the past year was the direct result of fraud against federal health care programs.
The $2.4 billion in settlements and court judgments against defendants
accused of fraud is the second largest annual recovery of civil fraud claims in history, West said.
The Justice Department has stepped up enforcement of health care fraud through the use of regional strike forces.
West said of the 1,040 cases currently under investigation, about 600 deal with health care fraud. A much smaller number deal with defense procurement fraud and other claims.
Most health care fraud charges in recent months have focused on people accused of overcharging Medicare for wheelchairs and other medical devices.
Can you imagine the amount of fraud when the Government is running all of Health Care. The House and Senate are already perpetrating an enormous fraud with their lies to the CBO about the cost. Obamacare will cost so many trillions it will bankrupt our current bad economy for a generation or more and drive UNEMPLOYMENT toward 20%. Do we really want cancer patients and old people denied life saving treatment to save money when 30 or 40% of our trillions upon trillions of tax dollars supporting Obamacare are just being stolen?
They'll find a bunch of fraud in nursing homes too. The one where I worked billed everyones insurance for range of motion therapy, but the only ones who actually received the therapy were the ones who could tell somebody if they hadn't.