The Obama administration has announced the launch of a public-private partnership aimed at fighting fraud in healthcare. The collaboration is between the federal government, State officials, and various health insurance organizations, as well as other anti-fraud groups in healthcare.
“This partnership puts criminals on notice that we will find them and stop them before they steal healthcare dollars,” Secretary Sebelius said in a statement. “Thanks to this initiative today and the anti-fraud tools that were made available by the health care law, we are working to stamp out these crimes and abuse in our health care system.”
HHS says the goal of the partnership is to “reveal and halt scams,” in the payer system. It will aim to build collaboration between those working on anti-fraud efforts and investigators, prosecutors, policymakers and other stakeholders. It will also aim to help law enforcement officials identify suspicious behavior easier, while protecting patient information. The partnership aims to have the various entities share information on specific schemes, utilized billing codes and geographical fraud hotspots so fraud can be detected before it happens.
The following organizations and government agencies are among the first to join this partnership:
- America’s Health Insurance Plans
- Amerigroup Corporation
- Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association
- Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana
- Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
- Coalition Against Insurance Fraud
- Federal Bureau of Investigations
- Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General
- Independence Blue Cross
- National Association of Insurance Commissioners
- National Association of Medicaid Fraud Control Units
- National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association
- National Insurance Crime Bureau
- New York Office of Medicaid Inspector General
- Travelers
- Tufts Health Plan
- UnitedHealth Group
The partnership comes amid a string of data breaches that have recently been reported in Boston, Houston, and elsewhere.
