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Federal fraud cases begun by private citizens against drugmakers, insurers and hospitals will probably surge past last year's record numbers, driven by incentives in the new health law.
Last year, federal officials began investigations of 280 cases as a result of whistleblower allegations, contributing to a record $1.4 billion in judgments, according to the U.S. Justice Department. The overhaul, along with revisions to the whistleblower laws made in May 2009, adds new layers of risk for companies, said Christopher A. Myers, a health-care attorney with Holland & Knight LLP in McLean, Virginia.
The health overhaul makes it easier for citizens to be rewarded for uncovering swindles, cuts the time before medical providers can be accused of withholding overpayments from Medicare and Medicaid, and includes pages of complicated new rules that can be broken.
"If you didn't have a strong compliance program before this, you were crazy," Myers said in a telephone interview. "If you don't have one now, you're really crazy."
Since 1999, the amount recovered as the result of health- care cases has more than tripled from $407 million, and 24 of the 25 largest judgments overall are linked to the industry, according to figures from Taxpayers Against Fraud, a Washington group funded by whistleblowers and plaintiffs' lawyers.
More:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-28/health-fraud-whistleblower-cases-may-surge-because-of-federal-law-overhaul.html -------------------------------------------
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