Just when you thought health care couldn’t get any more complicated, the U.S. Justice Department recently uncovered $712 million in Medicare fraud. Medical professionals totaling 243 were charged with submitting fake Medicare billing for medical treatments that were unnecessary and often never even provided. These arrests are being considered the largest criminal health care fraud takedown in U.S. history.
In Miami, a mental health facility billed more than $64 million for psychotherapy sessions, but in reality patients were merely being moved to different locations. A doctor in Michigan prescribed unnecessary narcotics in exchange for patients' identification information to create fake billings. These unfortunate patients became heavily addicted to the narcotics and the fake billing submissions became endless. This devastating criminal activity drives up medical costs and threatens a system that many Americans trust. Since 2007, federal authorities have charged nearly 2,300 people with falsely billing the Medicare program for a total of $7 billion today.
Written by Alison Killian
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Alison Killian is a recent graduate of Grove City College who majored in Business Management and minored in Biology Studies. She is a contributor to Medical Groups and passionate about all facets of healthcare. She plans on continuing work in the healthcare field especially in management. She is very interested in healthcare innovation and finding ways to improve the current system. She hopes to go back to school in a few years to earn a degree in medicine.