Obama’s 4 Billion Dollar Crackdown on Health Care Fraud

Last updated on June 3rd, 2012 at 10:22 am

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President Obama’s crackdown on health care fraud recovered $4 billion last year alone. The Obama Administration extended the life of the Medicare Trust Fund by, among other measures, cutting waste and subsidies in addition to recovering more than $4 billion dollars from health care scams last year alone.

Here’s the Obama campaign ad to tout these numbers:

The campaign wrote, “To you and your loved ones, Medicare is personal and to a president raised by his grandparents, it’s personal too. And starts with protecting your Medicare from health care scam artists who prey on seniors. President Obama is leading the most successful crackdown on health care fraud ever, already recovered four billion dollars from health care scams last year alone; to preserve Medicare now and for the future. A commitment to Medicare as personal as yours.”

Between 2009 And 2011, convictions under The Health Care Fraud And Abuse Control Program increased by over 27 percent and the number of defendants facing criminal charges filed by federal prosecutors in 2011 increased 74 Percent Compared With 2008. [Healthcare.gov, 02/14/12]

Business Week wrote, “Federal authorities say they recovered $4.1 billion in health care fraud judgments last year, a record high which officials on Monday credited to new tools for cracking down on deceitful Medicare claims. The recovered funds are up roughly 50 percent from 2009.”

The New York Times explained the Obama initiative was “designed to woo Americans on both sides of the political fence; both conservatives and liberals can embrace going after wasteful government spending and overpayments to insurance companies.”

What was that about fiscal conservatism? Yeah, that’s what we thought.

Sarah Jones

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