Health Care Fraud

A Northwest Baltimore nursing care center has agreed to pay $827,000 to the federal government to settle allegations that it improperly billed Medicare numerous times for room and board charges not covered by the program.Levindale Hebrew Geriatric Center and Hospital Inc. had been the target of an investigation begun under the the False Claims Act, the federal government's primary weapon in fighting fraud and waste in the health care industry, prosecutors said yesterday."Since 1994, we have recovered over $30 million utilizing the False Claims Act to attack health care fraud in Maryland," said Kathleen McDermott, an assistant U.S. attorney in Baltimore who coordinates such cases.

Saying that health care fraud is one of the nation's top two criminal problems, federal authorities announced a toll-free number yesterday that Marylanders can call to report waste and abuse affecting Medicare.The "Health Care Fraud Hotline," 800-377-5879, was established because of staggering levels of Medicare fraud each year, said Lynne A. Battaglia, U.S. attorney for Baltimore. Health and human services officials estimate $23 billion is lost annually from the Medicare program.Health care fraud is the No. 2 law enforcement priority for the U.S. Department of Justice, second only to violent crime, Battaglia said.

The U.S. health care system has grown into a trillion-dollar-a-year behemoth, making it a fat target for unscrupulous entrepreneurs who are stealing billions of dollars.Next to violent crime, fighting health care fraud has become the priority for Baltimore's U.S. attorney and the FBI -- as it has for Attorney General Janet Reno -- and they are using a Civil War-era statute to do it: the federal False Claims Act.Adopted in 1863 when profiteers were gouging the Union army by such acts as selling gunpowder kegs filled with sawdust, the law encourages whistle-blowers to come forward.

WASHINGTON -- Health care fraud is the fastest-growing criminal enterprise in the United States -- costing government and private insurance plans at least $44 billion a year -- and federal investigators are far behind the crooks, FBI Director Louis J. Freeh told Congress yesterday.Fraud schemes are so profitable that street gangs and cocaine distributors in South Florida, Southern California and other parts of the country are turning to ripping off Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance companies, Mr. Freeh said.

Maryland has been awarded a $200,000 U.S. Justice Department grant to set up a unit to investigate fraud in the health care industry, Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. announced yesterday.The Justice Department wants Maryland "to develop a prototype statewide health care fraud prosecution unit capable of investigating and prosecuting all types of health care fraud" that other states can copy, Mr. Curran said.The effort will be aimed at those who commit fraud against private health care insurers, such as Blue Cross and Blue Shield, and the federal Medicare system.

Federal agents across the country yesterday raided offices and hospitals of National Medical Enterprises, one of the nation's largest hospital companies, as part of a national investigation of health insurance fraud.Law enforcement officials familiar with the investigation said they seized documents as part of an effort to prove that the company had participated in a national conspiracy to defraud patients and insurance companies.In a statement, the company's general counsel, Scott Brown, said National Medical was cooperating with investigators in making documents available and praised law enforcement agencies for not disturbing patients at nine hospitals entered by federal agents.

For more than a year now, there's been widespread discussion about reforming America's $900-billion-a-year health care system.Most of the talk has centered on two areas: how to get more people covered and how to control costs.What has gotten lost in the public discussion about health care reform is health care fraud.The numbers are staggering: Medical fraud and abuse accounts for an estimated $100 billion annually.Put another way: More than 10 cents out of every dollar spent on health care goes for fraud or abuse.

In a rapidly widening effort to root out health care fraud, federal officials have subpoenaed Medicare and Medicaid billing records of at least five of the country's largest medical laboratory companies.Although no charges have been brought against the companies, the investigation of the $32 billion-a-year blood-testing industry is the latest of several inquiries by law enforcement agencies. Federal officials have said that medical fraud may account for $80 billion to $100 billion of the more than $900 billion that Americans will spend on health care this year.

...VTC WASHINGTON -- Estimating that health care fraud is costing billions of dollars, the Department of Justice is doubling the number of FBI agents investigating such crimes and is setting up special prosecution units in 12 cities, including Baltimore.Department officials will tell Attorney General William P. Barr in a report this week that health-care violations have grown from those committed by single practitioners to "organized criminal activity" affecting the $738 billion industry.

WASHINGTON -- Health care fraud and abuse could cost Americans $70 billion this year and may cost even more in the coming decade unless Congress takes steps to control it, according to a government study to be made public at a hearing on Capitol Hill today.A draft copy of the report, prepared by the General Accounting Office (GAO), also found examples of private companies and doctors who submitted phony documents and ordered unnecessary tests, collecting billions in fees from private insurance companies as well as public programs like Medicare and Medicaid.

Authorities arrested a Severna Park woman yesterday on charges that she billed Medicare and private health care companies for more than a half-million dollars for services she didn't provide, the U.S. attorney's office said. A statement from federal prosecutors in Baltimore says Virginia Vought Acree, 49, was indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury on 10 counts of health care fraud. The government also is seeking forfeiture of $578,780. Prosecutors said that Acree is a state-licensed clinical specialist in child and adolescent psychiatric and mental health nursing who worked out of her home in the first block of Brenda Court in Severna Park.

WASHINGTON -- A federal law established at Abraham Lincoln's urging to punish vendors who sold shoddy goods to the Union army has become the government's most formidable weapon against health care fraud. But the success of the law, which has recovered almost $8 billion in such fraud since 1987, has prompted an attack by pro-business conservatives who want to cut back a critical provision: the authority to pay hefty rewards to whistle-blowers who provide inside information about improper activities by medical groups, drug companies and other health care providers.

Anthony Cannon was a smooth talker but not a very good physical therapist. He forced one of his patients, suffering from spinal problems, to lift 60-pound weights. During one "therapy session" with a 66-year-old woman recovering from cancer surgery, Cannon only sat on the couch and listened to music. Both patients later told authorities that they were suspicious of Cannon's methods. That's not surprising. Cannon, 39, wasn't a licensed physical therapist and was helping to orchestrate a fraud scheme with his wife, Diane, out of Howard County that earned them more than $400,000.

A Northwest Baltimore nursing care center has agreed to pay $827,000 to the federal government to settle allegations that it improperly billed Medicare numerous times for room and board charges not covered by the program.Levindale Hebrew Geriatric Center and Hospital Inc. had been the target of an investigation begun under the the False Claims Act, the federal government's primary weapon in fighting fraud and waste in the health care industry, prosecutors said yesterday."Since 1994, we have recovered over $30 million utilizing the False Claims Act to attack health care fraud in Maryland," said Kathleen McDermott, an assistant U.S. attorney in Baltimore who coordinates such cases.

Saying that health care fraud is one of the nation's top two criminal problems, federal authorities announced a toll-free number yesterday that Marylanders can call to report waste and abuse affecting Medicare.The "Health Care Fraud Hotline," 800-377-5879, was established because of staggering levels of Medicare fraud each year, said Lynne A. Battaglia, U.S. attorney for Baltimore. Health and human services officials estimate $23 billion is lost annually from the Medicare program.Health care fraud is the No. 2 law enforcement priority for the U.S. Department of Justice, second only to violent crime, Battaglia said.

The U.S. health care system has grown into a trillion-dollar-a-year behemoth, making it a fat target for unscrupulous entrepreneurs who are stealing billions of dollars.Next to violent crime, fighting health care fraud has become the priority for Baltimore's U.S. attorney and the FBI -- as it has for Attorney General Janet Reno -- and they are using a Civil War-era statute to do it: the federal False Claims Act.Adopted in 1863 when profiteers were gouging the Union army by such acts as selling gunpowder kegs filled with sawdust, the law encourages whistle-blowers to come forward.

Maryland has been awarded a $200,000 U.S. Justice Department grant to set up a unit to investigate fraud in the health care industry, Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. announced yesterday.The Justice Department wants Maryland "to develop a prototype statewide health care fraud prosecution unit capable of investigating and prosecuting all types of health care fraud" that other states can copy, Mr. Curran said.The effort will be aimed at those who commit fraud against private health care insurers, such as Blue Cross and Blue Shield, and the federal Medicare system.

WASHINGTON -- Health care fraud is the fastest-growing criminal enterprise in the United States -- costing government and private insurance plans at least $44 billion a year -- and federal investigators are far behind the crooks, FBI Director Louis J. Freeh told Congress yesterday.Fraud schemes are so profitable that street gangs and cocaine distributors in South Florida, Southern California and other parts of the country are turning to ripping off Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance companies, Mr. Freeh said.

For more than a year now, there's been widespread discussion about reforming America's $900-billion-a-year health care system.Most of the talk has centered on two areas: how to get more people covered and how to control costs.What has gotten lost in the public discussion about health care reform is health care fraud.The numbers are staggering: Medical fraud and abuse accounts for an estimated $100 billion annually.Put another way: More than 10 cents out of every dollar spent on health care goes for fraud or abuse.

In a rapidly widening effort to root out health care fraud, federal officials have subpoenaed Medicare and Medicaid billing records of at least five of the country's largest medical laboratory companies.Although no charges have been brought against the companies, the investigation of the $32 billion-a-year blood-testing industry is the latest of several inquiries by law enforcement agencies. Federal officials have said that medical fraud may account for $80 billion to $100 billion of the more than $900 billion that Americans will spend on health care this year.