South Florida Accounts for 20% of Medicare Fraud Cases, U.S. Attorney General Says
Twenty percent of all federal Medicare fraud prosecutions are filed in South Florida, U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey said on Wednesday, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports (South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 5/29). U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta and the Department of Justice last year established the Medicare Fraud Strike Force in Miami, which comprises federal agents and prosecutors (Weaver, Miami Herald, 5/29).
The strike force has brought 120 criminal and civil cases against more than 200 defendants in South Florida who have been charged with more than $638 million in fraud. Fraud cases involve such things as billing Medicare for medical equipment and prescriptions that beneficiaries do not need, billing Medicare for services never provided, and stealing information from physicians and hospitals and submitting false claims to Medicare (Anderson, AP/Florida Times-Union, 5/28). Mukasey on Wednesday said, "Fighting the fraud and theft committed by these criminals is vital to preserving our health care system -- vital to its financial solvency, as well as its integrity" (Miami Herald, 5/29).
According to the AP/Florida Times-Union, "South Florida has long been described as one of the nation's hotbeds of Medicare fraud, along with the Los Angeles area." Mukasey said the strike force is a model for other cities, adding, "The work you have started here has led the country on this issue" (AP/Florida Times-Union, 5/28). Mukasey said, "All of these cases take criminals out of the system, and save or return much-needed dollars. They also deter others from trying to game the system," but he added, "We cannot prosecute our way out of this problem" (Miami Herald, 5/29).
