And cue… “Bad boys, bad boys, whatcha gonna do, whatcha gonna do when they come for you?”

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) of the Department of Health & Human Services launched a Most Wanted Fugitives List for those criminals wanted by authorities on charges of healthcare fraud and abuse. This most wanted list is a tool to bring attention to the fugitives and their crimes against the healthcare system.

The list on the OIG website includes photos, profiles, and a list of crimes of each featured fugitive. The 10 individuals on the list have allegedly cost taxpayers more than $124 million in fraud. In all, OIG is seeking more than 170 fugitives on charges related to healthcare fraud and abuse.

Included on the Most Wanted Fugitives List:

1. Eduardo Moreno

Moreno allegedly stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Medicare program, submitting false and fraudulent claims for durable medical equipment (DME) “and related health care benefits, items and services” that were medically unnecessary.

Moreno was a sneaky fraudster, using a “straw owner” and other methods to hide the money and property he obtained. (A straw owner is an individual who maintains the appearance of owning property in order to disguise the identity of the real owner.)

2. Leonard Nwafor

Nwafor billed Medicare for $1.1 million and collected $525,000 in fraudulent claims for such durable medical equipment (DME) as motorized wheelchairs, scooters, and hospital beds for beneficiaries. This investigation was led by the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, including OIG investigators, which was created to identify and prosecute fraudulent DME companies and laboratories in the Greater Los Angeles area.

The website also provides you with the opportunity to report any of the fugitives or any other individuals believed to have committed healthcare fraud. The site also includes a toll free number.

Take a look at the fugitives and spread the word! These are the individuals causing healthcare costs to increase and benefits to decrease.

All puns aside, the government is really turning up the HEAT on healthcare fraud. HEAT (Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team) was established in May 2009 to crack down and prevent fraud, waste and abuse in a healthcare system that loses an estimated $60 to $80 billion per year to fraudsters and the “ethically challenged.”

HEAT compliments the joint DOJ-HHS Medicare Fraud Strike Force which is a multi-agency team of federal, state and local investigators designed to combat Medicare fraud using high-tech data analytic techniques and a focus on community policing. Strike Force teams are currently in Miami, Los Angeles, Detroit, Houston, Brooklyn, Tampa and Baton Rouge.

The HEAT task force is comprised of top-level law enforcement agents, prosecutors and staff from both the Department of Justice and the Department Health and Human Services.

How is HEAT weathering the storm? By all accounts, this new task force is living up to the hype. Thirty-six people in five different states have been arrested and 94 indicted following an investigation regarding a Medicare insurance scam totaling over $250 million. Investigators apprehended nurses, doctors and other health professionals in Miami, New York, Detroit, Houston and Baton Rouge.

Attorney General Eric Holder was quoted saying, “With [these] arrests, we’re putting would-be criminals on notice: Healthcare fraud is no longer a safe bet.”

What are the fraudsters doing these days? Well, according to reports, NOT getting away with healthcare fraud thanks to the new task force. The government is in hot pursuit of those that are bilking the system.
As an investigator, here are some sure fire tips to help spot fraud in a healthcare setting:

1. Make sure you have a system in process to collect diagnosis and procedure information.
2. Track diagnosis and procedures provided, even if just by volume.
3. By simply having the right information in a single source data base, we can begin to ask the data, “Where is the hanging fruit activity?” For example, how many procedures are done in one day by one provider? How long does a patient wait to be seen? How far apart are the actual treatments?
4. Finally, tracking the different types of healthcare fraud schemes is just as valuable. A common scheme in many countries is falsifying mental and emotional states of an individual as a ruse to steal assets which lead to misrepresenting identity to receive healthcare services.

Regardless, one thing for sure is that we can always depend on the creativity of the ethically challenged.

What are the fraudsters doing these days? Well, according to reports, NOT getting away with healthcare fraud. The government is in hot pursuit of those that are bilking the system.

Some recent arrests include:

A Michigan podiatrist was accused of filing more than $800,000 in fraudulent claims. The doctor billed insurance providers for surgical procedures performed after falsely diagnosing patients with foot infections.

A New York surgeon was charged with stealing $3.5 million from insurance companies. The Department of Health & Human Services also investigated his billing patterns and found he had allegedly billed for multiple hemorrhoidectomies, office visits and examinations on the same day for the same patient on multiple occasions.

A Chicago-area cardiologist was ordered to pay $20 million and sentenced to 5 years in prison for defrauding both private and public insurers. The whistle blower on the case was another physician who worked in the same office.

Two West Virginia internists were sentenced to one year and one day of prison time after admitting to their involvement in a pill mill scheme. The local pharmacy where the prescriptions were sent by the physicians sold more hydrocodone in 2006 than all but 21 retail pharmacies in the country.

A California pathologist was sentenced to 25 years in prison for prescription fraud. He wrote fraudulent prescriptions for oxycodone in exchange for cash. In some cases the prescriptions were for minors under the age of 21.

In Miami a massage clinic owner was convicted of Medicare fraud. The owner was charged with submitting false claims for physical therapy services that were never given and occupational therapy services that Medicare does not cover.

Healthcare fraud is prevalent, but we’re finding ways to stop the bad guys.

We have discussed types of healthcare fraud (i.e. Rent-a-Patient Schemes, Pill Mill Schemes, Drop Box Schemes & Third-Party Billing Schemes) in a previous post. However we didn’t highlight some new ways scammers and fraudsters are stealing your healthcare dollars, mainly through the online world.

A recent ABC News article, “Health Care Fraud: Two Ways Scammers Are Trying to Take Your Money” describes two “ingenious” ways fraudsters are stealing your money. The article explains that because of all the healthcare hoopla occurring, people do not understand and are unaware of current policies – leaving what they call “anxious Americans.” This is how the scammers get you.

The first scam that was highlighted was “Door-to-door salesman selling bogus policies.” What does that entail? Scammers are going door-to-door selling fake insurance policies by stating that current legislation is accounting for the low “limited enrollment” period fees. They are confusing people by essentially telling them that if they don’t buy the insurance now, the price will increase excrementally and they will not be able to afford it in time.

The next scam “1-800 advertisements promoting scams” is very similar to the door-to-door scam; however, this time the fraudster are taking it to the airwaves and asking people to call and 1-800 number for “limited enrollment specials made possible by new legislation.”

As always, don’t forget about Medical Identity Theft – this practice is increasing by 375%. The key to any insurance deal is if it is too good to be true than it probably is.