First RAC, now HEAT????

The new HHS Secretary issued a press release on May 20th announcing a new interagency Healthcare Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT).

You can find the press release here: HEAT

The following are some excerpts from the press release:

• Holder (Attny General) and Sebelius (HHS Secretary) also announced the expansion of Strike Force team operations to Detroit and Houston. Medicare Fraud Strike Forces, currently in operation in South Florida and Los Angeles, fight Medicare fraud on a targeted local level.
• “Today, we are turning up the heat on perpetrators who steal from the taxpayers and threaten the future of Medicare and Medicaid,” said Secretary Sebelius. “Most providers are doing the right thing and providing care with integrity. But we cannot and will not allow billions of dollars to be stolen from Medicare and Medicaid through fraud, waste and serious abuse of the system.
• The HEAT team will include senior officials from DOJ and HHS who will build upon and strengthen existing programs to combat fraud while also investing new resources and technology to prevent fraud, waste and abuse before it happens.
• Efforts will include the expansion of joint DOJ-HHS Medicare Fraud Strike Force teams that have been successfully fighting fraud in South Florida and Los Angeles. Established in 2007, these teams have a proven record of success using a “data-driven” approach to identify unexplainable billing patterns and investigating these providers for possible fraudulent activity.
• Prevention is critical to reforming the system and the HEAT team will also focus critical resources on preventing fraud from occurring in the first place. The team will build on demonstration projects by the HHS Inspector General and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) that focus on suppliers of durable medical equipment (DME).
• The Attorney General and the HHS Secretary also called on the American people to visit a new Web site www.hhs.gov/stopmedicarefraud or call 1-800-HHS-TIPS (1-800-447-8477) to report suspected Medicare fraud.