Federal Government Seeks Power To Exclude Those Involved With Health Fraud From Working Again With Medicare

side note: This blog maintains its focus on medical professional liability insurance and medical malpractice, but this article was such an eye opener this morning, we had to share.  We try and share with you everything we can, even when it does not touch upon insurance. We will be trying to expand coverage, if you ever come across an article and want to share, shoot us an email at info(@)mymedicalmalpracticeinsurance.com

The Hill: “Independent federal investigators hoping to rein in Medicare fraud are asking Congress for broad new authority to boot offending corporate executives from the insurance program. The change is designed to control Medicare claims fraud by punishing culpable owners, managers and other corporate higher-ups, and not just the convicted companies. … Under current law, HHS can exclude from all federal healthcare programs any owner or employee who knew, or should have known, about a healthcare scheme leading to a company’s conviction. But to be subject to the exclusion, the offending person must still be with the company.” As a result, “[c]ulpable executives can resign – and offending owners can divest – immediately after a company’s conviction”, leaving Office of the Inspector General officials without power to prevent them from “participating in federal health programs with other companies. OIG wants Congress to expand its exclusion authority to include any worker – past or present – found responsible for the fraud” (Lillis, 6/15).

The original article can be found at Medical News Today, a great resource.