Affordable Care Act Recovers Record Amount From Healthcare Fraud

In a report released on Wednesday in Washington, D.C. by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the agencies announced that in the 2013 fiscal year the Affordable Care Act, also known as ‘Obamacare,’ was in part responsible for the record-breaking $4.3 billion recovery of funds lost due to Medicare and Medicaid fraud.

Over the past four years approximately $16.61 billion has been recovered from such fraud, a 219% increase over the previous four- year period’s recovery of $7.57 billion. The savings is a return of $8.10 for every dollar used to fight Medicare and Medicaid fraud.

In a White House blog announcing the findings, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder wrote, “Crime doesn’t pay when it comes to defrauding Medicare or Medicaid. But our crime-fighting efforts do.”

They later added, “Our ultimate goal, of course, is to prevent any taxpayer dollar from going to waste. We have more to do to reach that goal. But today’s report shows that we’re making substantial and significant progress in the fight against health care fraud.”

More here: http://www.examiner.com/article/affordable-care-act-recovers-record-amount-from-healthcare-fraud

Found on the Obama Diary