Feds say they recovered $1 billion in fiscal 2008
The U.S. Justice Department and HHS’ inspector general’s office recovered $1 billion in judgments and settlements in fiscal 2008 for the federal government, according to the annual report of the Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control Program. Under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, the departments are required to coordinate and issue reports on their efforts to fight fraud perpetrated against federal health programs. The reports are generally issued about a year after the close of the fiscal year they cover. In fiscal 2008, about $1.94 billion was returned to the Medicare Trust Fund as a result of enforcement actions in that year and previous years, and $344 million in Medicaid funds was returned to the U.S. Treasury. U.S. attorneys, meanwhile, opened 957 new criminal cases involving healthcare fraud, filed criminal charges against 797 defendants and won 588 convictions. The Justice Department’s civil division opened 843 new healthcare fraud investigations.
Modern Healthcare by Gregg Blesch, October 23, 2009
Read the FULL REPORT
Expect Stricter HIPAA Enforcement
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) will now be responsible for enforcing the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) security rule in addition to the privacy rule. (The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services was previously responsible for the security rule). This consolidation of HIPAA enforcement activity highlights the Administration’s heightened scrutiny of security and privacy of health information. In fact, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 mandates enhanced patient privacy rights and physician practice requirements, increased financial penalties for violations of the privacy rule and the security rules and allocated additional resources for enforcement.
How will this affect you? Well if your group practice has not yet put in place a plan to implement the Red Flag rules, you will be at risk of a HIPPA violation once the enforcement begins.
