President George Bush proposed a two part strategy with initial implemented drug coverage to low-income beneficiaries coupled with a White House task force to develop a plan to reform Medicare (Health Policy, 2001). Under this plan beneficiaries with income 135% below the national poverty guidelines would be eligible for full prescription drug coverage and a sliding scale would be provided for those under 175% (Health Policy 2001).
The most controversial aspect of these proposals was whether or not Medicare should remain a public insurance that is managed by the federal government. Supporters felt that this program should continue existing programs in scope and nature while opponents claim that a program of this sort should exist in the private market. Proposals suggested that a national standard for drug benefits should be established with all beneficiaries being eligible for standard benefits and increased benefits being given to those who incur catastrophic expenses.….

Medicaid and Medicare Fraud
Describe health news story combating health care fraud Medicare Medicaid• Examine evaluate corporate structure governance, culture, focus social responsibility • ecommends

Medicare and Medicaid fraud: An overview

Medicare and Medicaid fraud: An overview

While there is still little consensus regarding the best ways to go about enacting healthcare reform, one issue that unites both Democrats and epublicans is the need to eliminate Medicaid and Medicare waste, fraud and abuse. According to a 2009 CBS News report: "One tiny pharmacy in a Hialeah [Florida] strip mall went from billing Medicare $13,000 in May to billing nearly a million dollars a month later," and regulators took no notice (osen & Bach 2009:1). It has been estimated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) the fraudulent billings to public and private health care programs are 3 -- 10% of total health spending, $75 -- $250 billion per year on average, and that is….

Fraudulent activities such as these resulted in violations under the act, including a fine of not more than $25,000.00 or imprisonment for not more than five years, or both.
Analysis of Current Fraud legal analysis of the current fraud committed in the Medicare and Medicaid programs indicates that reforms are in place to detect this fraud, and the involvement of governmental, local and federal police and investigation authorities has increased as well. For example, the National Center Policy for Analysis (2001) reports that 350 FI agents are now investigating a record 2,300 potentially fraudulent cases in the medical industry. In addition, various government antifraud units are being allowed to tap into the Medicare trust fund for the first time to fund their budgets; $104 million for 2001 and more than $200 million for 2002. As a result of the high volume of Medicare and Medicaid fraud, in the past few….

Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), previously the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), that by the time 2011, health care expenditure will arrive at $2.8 trillion, as well as it will bill for 17% of the Gross Domestic Product. As a result, it is no revelation that white-collar offenders observe health care deception as a rewarding effort. Certainly, the General Accounting Office ("GAO") quotes that such deception accounts for up to 10% of entire health care expense (3).
As health care deception outlays taxpayers almost $100 billion a year, federal, as well as state agencies have given health care fraud tribunal a key center of attention. All through her term, Attorney General Janet Reno made impeaching health care fraud a top precedence at the Department of Justice ("DOJ"), subsequent only to brutal offenses (3).

The government focuses its pains to perceive, as well as take legal action against health care fraud in….

Fraud and Abuse
United States v. Greber -- 3rd Circuit, 1985

Facts:

Dr. Greber's company, Cardio-Med, supplied Holter monitors, a device worn by patients that records heartbeats for later interpretation. Investigations showed that Cardio-Med billed Medicare and gave a portion of each payment to the prescribing physician, under the heading, "interpretation fees," even when Dr. Greber actually did the interpretation of the data. It was found that the fixed percentage paid to the referring physicians was more than Medicare allowed for such services. Further, Medicare requires that the device be used eight hours or more to qualify for payment. Cardio-Med and Dr. Greber reported longer operation times than the patients actually used their monitors.

In 1977, Congress changed the fraud statute of Medicare to clarify such problems as "kickbacks." In the revised statute, kickbacks were defined as any remuneration that might in any way be perceived as encouraging one company to do business with….

Healthcare Law -- Ethics & Policy
Memo to ABC Hospital Board of Directors: How to develop strategies to help mitigate abuse and fraud within our organization by understanding fraud and abuse issues.

The Department of Health and Human Services has provided a great deal of good information for healthcare professionals and the public in terms of ways to avoid and/or deal with fraud and abuse. This document reflects the ways in which this hospital can be on the lookout for fraud and abuse when it comes to Medicare. This document will also explain the difference between fraud and abuse in the Medicare system.

Medicare Fraud

Typically Medicare fraud means a person in this hospital -- or a doctor affiliated with this hospital contractually -- would knowingly submit false statements or somehow misrepresent what his or her services actually were, in an attempt to cheat the federal government. Also a healthcare person could solicit, pay….

American Hospital Association (AHA) might be interested in the pending legislation:
Although all three positions of the proposed bill would be of concern, two of the three would cause serious ramifications for the AHA and its members. The first would be the 5% annual reduction. This cut equates to a very serious amount of income for the industry especially if the cut was scheduled for across the board reductions. Hospitals and nursing homes are already working at bare bones and more cuts would cause serious financial dilemmas if implemented. If the cuts are unique to certain aspects of the Medicare billing system, the AHA would need clear details of where the proposed cuts would actually be coming from.

The second of the three major concerns would be the simplification for assessing penalties to providers accused of abusing the Medicare payment system. It is the AHA's stance that providers should still be….

Miscoding on the Billing Forms Discussion Board
The fundamental basis for auditing Medicare and Medicaid billing is that the services provided are confidential, patient privacy must be protected, and the written word of the provider is the record of service provision upon which a review must be initiated (Harris, 2007). Auditing, however, must extend beyond the written record to establish that the services were actually provided to the patient or client and that the services were rendered according to the conditions described in the provider's written record (Harris, 2007)

As the practice manager, I would remind the physician that every employee has a duty to cooperate and a duty of loyalty to the employer. And I would explain that these duties obligate employees to comply with reasonable directions from their employers during an internal investigation. The employee should be party to a conversation that an internal investigation may or may not commence….

ACA and EMS
The implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is sure to change the way EMS operate in the coming years. Accountable Care Organizations (ACO), for instance, are now responsible for overseeing how reimbursements are paid out to those agencies that provide health care -- and at the same time they are responsible for gauging whether or not quality care is delivered by providers (Koury et al., 2014). This is a tall order for a new functioning body and the ACOs tasked with these orders will have an indirect impact on how EMS operates. To see how that impact will be effected, an examination of the ACOs and hospitals interact requires examination -- because it is that interaction that will inevitably alter the way in which the EMS goes about their business. This paper will examine the relationship between the ACA, ACOs, hospitals and EMS and show how an….

Amerigroup Illinois Inc. Fraud CaseAmerigroup Illinois Inc. was found guilty in 2006 under the Federal Claims Act and the Illinois Protection Act. Amerigroup and its subsidiaries denied enrolling pregnant women and unhealthy patients in its managed care program in Illinois. Amerigroup received payment from the state and federal governments to operate a Medicaid health care program for low-income earners (Department Justice, 2008). Amerigroup was mandated by law to enroll all applicants eligible for the care under the Medicaid program. The State of Illinois and the Federal government of the US filled claims against Amerigroup, alleging that the corporation overlooked their responsibility of enrolling unhealthy parents and pregnant women since it would have been more expensive and lowered the profit margins earned by the patients.The court entered into a $334 million judgment against Amerigroup under the Federal Claims Act and the Illinois Whistleblower eward and Protection Act. The Jury found the….

The facts that you have provided indicate extremely troubling circumstances that could seriously jeopardize the welfare of your organization. It is well-settled law that entities contracting for the services of subsidiaries are legally responsible for legal and ethical improprieties committed by those subsidiaries irrespective of whether or not the contracting organization had any specific involvement in or knowledge of those actions. Accordingly, we would strongly advise that you take immediate action to rectify the situations described in the manner outlined in our recommendations below.

ecommendations

To avoid the potentially serious criminal, civil, and financial consequences arising under MWHC's respondeat superior responsibility to prevent fraud and abuse in connection with its association with subsidiaries, it is hereby recommended that MWHC immediately:

1. Instruct the subsidiary to cease and desist from offering its contracted home health agency employees compensation of any kind in connection with client durable medical equipment (DME) orders from the subsidiary.

2. Instruct….

In the case of pill mills, participating physicians and pharmacists bill insurance companies or Medicare for prescription drugs, allowing participating beneficiaries to resell those drugs to criminal middlemen. The pharmacy then repurchases the drugs at a lower cost. According to the USGAO, any misuse of beneficiary identification information is a felony.
Criminals may also steal beneficiary information by creating drop boxes. The drop box scheme involves establishing a phony health care company in order to obtain insurance or Medicare payments. Like the drop box scheme, the pill mill scheme, and the rent-a-patient scheme, third-party billing also involves felony acts. Illegally obtaining beneficiary identification numbers, a criminal can use third-party billing agents to receive insurance payouts. The third-party billing company may not even be aware of the scheme. In other cases, the third-party billing company is a part of the scheme, defrauding by tacking on fraudulent claims to legitimate ones and….

Corporate fraud as a dishonest activity for organizations that is considered as white collar crime has serious legal implications. Though it can be difficult to detect and catch, it is important to prevent it by creating effective and efficient policies for the organizations that ensure an efficient system of checks and balances exists in the organization for its physical and fiscal security. Whenever fraud happens in a company or organization, it often takes the form of hiding sources of revenue, overstating expenses or growth, or disguising payments made to individuals in the company. Often, fraudulent activities within the organization are complex in nature and have a gross impact on the financial nature of the organization. It is usually perpetrated by the company management and other employees are often unaware of these fraudulent activities (Mele, 2005).
Corporate fraud, as difficult as it is to prevent, often has a ripple effect whereby when….

Healthcare Fraud
Identity theft and fraud of many types and forms are obviously a major inconvenience and hindrance to anyone that falls prey to a person that engages that crime. There are many variants and forms of fraud and identity theft out there. One of the more insidious and nasty examples of those crimes would be that which relates to healthcare. Indeed, to have people's wallet, healthcare and the taxpayer dollar on top of that all potentially compromised in one fail swoop is a very ominous and nefarious endeavor. Even so, it happens all of the time and to all sorts of people. egardless of the particular situation or scenario, any instances of fraud or abuse when it comes to healthcare insurance, healthcare providers and the services dispensed from all of the above are never a good thing. While healthcare is deemed to be a right to be extended without limitations….

The Act creates a positive balance between government interests to save money and the interests of Medicare recipients to receive a wide range of drugs for their specific needs. The current ban on government negotiations with pharmaceutical companies serves to protect Medicate recipients by using the positives of the free market, such as the experience and purchasing power of PBMs. hile there are serious potential problems with this approach, such as the potential for fraud between pharmaceutical companies and private interests, overall the ban on government negotiations with pharmaceutical companies provides a good balance between recipient and government interests.
orks Cited

American Legislative Exchange Council. Prescription Drugs. 19 October 2005. http://www.alec.org/2/4/talking-points/7.html

Barry, Patricia. New Salvos in the Prescription Drug ars: Class action suits are exposing schemes that gouge consumers. AARP Bulletin, January 2005.

19 October 2005. http://www.aarp.org/bulletin/prescription/a2005-01-06-salvos.html

Dealey, Sam. Drug Dealings: Democrats had it right before. National Review Online, May 05, 2004, 9:12 A.M.….