I had occasion today to look into the Department of Health & Human Services' Office of Inspector General's information today and, specifically, some of the recent enforcement announcements.
Rather than focusing on the identities of those involved, I thought that the best education for our readers is to summarize the types of fraud encountered this month:
- Former head of a government agency charged with accepting items of value – cash, home renovations, etc. – in exchange for steering contracts.
- Dermatologist indicted for allegedly misdiagnosing patients in order to receive federal benefits, billing for surgeries not performed, utilizing unlicensed assistants and then billing as if a licensed doctor performed the work, and more.
- Company's alleged failure to maintain vaccine temperature controls during shipment and then seeking reimbursement for performance under government contracts.
- Allegedly improper charging of government insurance programs for procedures that were never performed.
- Payments allegedly made to support business kickbacks, notable in that the payments were made by gift cards and videogame systems.
These allegations touched upon any number of businesses, including manufacturers, dermatologists, hospitals, home health care, attorneys and governments. Unfortunately, there are more examples posted. To quote the 1980's TV show Hill Street Blues, "Let's be careful out there."
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