Update (May 3): In total, 107 individuals were charged yesterday in connection with a health care fraud scheme comprising $452 million in false billing. 91 of the accused have been arrested and are in custody.
(May 2, 2012): News outlets are reporting that approximately 100 people have been arrested and charged with one or more health care fraud schemes involving false billings to Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal health care programs. These health care fraud schemes allegedly resulted in approximately $450 million in fraudulent billings, one of, if not the largest, such busts in the history of federal health care programs. The report goes on to state that arrests were made in seven major metropolitan areas as a result of an investigation over several months into these issues. CBS is reporting that over 50 of the individuals arrested were in Miami, Florida. Other arrests were made in Los Angeles, Houston, Detroit, Chicago, Tampa Bay, and Baton Rouge. In Baton Rouge, authorities are saying that these arrests were not just the result of several months of investigation, but a capped a six year long process to uncover fraudulent activities. Many of those arrested were allegedly involved in schemes related to the provision of mental health services or home health services.
I. Law Abiding Providers Should Take Note:
Health care providers in the cities where these health care fraud busts occurred should be wary. While HHS-OIG and DOJ have allegedly rooted out criminals from the Medicare program, these events cast a bad light on all providers in these regions. It has been our observation that after a large health care fraud bust such as this, the Zone Program Integrity Contractor (ZPIC) or Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) for each region enhances their auditing efforts of similar providers. The ZPICs in these regions include SafeGuard Services (Los Angeles, Miami and Tampa), AdvanceMed Corporation (Baton Rouge) and Health Integrity (Houston). All of the ZPICs are capable, aggressive, and will critically audit a provider's claims for both technical deficiencies and lack of medical necessity issues.
II. It is Essential That You Develop and Implement an Effective Compliance Program:
Despite the federal government taking health care fraud wrongdoers off of the streets, ZPICs and RACs will likely step up enforcement efforts for other providers. It is therefore imperative that you establish and follow an effective compliance plan in your practice or facility as soon as possible. You should conduct a gap analysis to review your documentation practices, business operations, and relationships with referral sources, suppliers, and other providers. These issues are too important at this point to ignore. Moreover, if you have received a letter from a ZPIC or RAC, it is not something to fool around with or ignore. These entities will often review a sample of claims, deny many or all of those claims, and then extrapolate those findings onto a one or two year universe. This results in alleged overpayments to providers, sometimes in the millions of dollars. If you have received one of these letters, call us today to learn more about the process and your rights and responsibilities.
Liles Parker is a full-service law firm with offices in Washington, DC, Baton Rouge, Houston, and San Antonio. We provide nationwide representation of health care providers in a variety of administrative and other matters, including administrative appeals of ZPIC, RAC, MAC, MIC and Medicaid RAC overpayment determinations. In addition, we provide compliance plan drafting and implementation, compliance training for office staff, and mock audits. For more information, call us today at 1 (800) 475-1906 for a free consultation.