Obama Admin Warns it Will Prosecute Doctors and Hospitals for Medicare Fraud

Any hospital or doctor abusing Medicare is abusing the taxpayer and should be subject to lengthy jail time.

Saying there are “troubling indications” of abuse in the way hospitals use electronic records to bill for Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement, the Obama administration warned in a letter to hospital associations Monday that it would not tolerate what it called attempts to “game the system” and vowed to vigorously prosecute doctors and hospitals implicated in fraud.

The strongly worded letter, signed by the attorney general, Eric H. Holder Jr., and the secretary of health and human services, Kathleen Sebelius, said that “electronic health records have the potential to save money and save lives.” But the letter continued: “There are troubling indications that some providers are using this technology to game the system, possibly to obtain payments to which they are not entitled. False documentation of care is not just bad patient care; it’s illegal.NYT