Health Care Fraud

Health Care Fraud is not a victimless crime. It increases healthcare costs for everyone. It is as dangerous as identity theft. Fraud has left many thousands of people injured.

Health care costs over $2 trillion dollars annually and fraud is estimated at between 3 to 10 percent of the total. That can amount to $2 Billion dollars.

Schemes target large health care programs and patients alike. The FBI reports that fraudulent health care has become more sophisticated and complex.

If you are a victim of fraud, we can help.

Call us at 1-888-331-6422 or email us today for a Free Fraud Case Review!

Health Care Fraud is expected to continue to rise as people live longer. Longer living people means greater demand for Medicare benefits. As a result, fraud is expected to involve more long and short term care facilities such as skilled nursing, assisted living, and hospice services in the future. Fraudulent billings and medically unnecessary services billed to health care insurers are more and more frequent too.

Current fraud schemes also include diluted cancer drugs and fraudulent lab tests. Unscrupulous surgery centers often recruit individuals with quality insurance coverage to receive covered surgeries in exchange for kickbacks. The scheme involves patients willing to undergo unnecessary and unwarranted medical procedures to generate fraudulent claims and profits. Believe it or not, the FBI reports that these patients are recruited on a national level and are often confined within a variety of ethnic populations.

What is Health Care Fraud?

• Altered or fabricated medical bills and other documents.
• Excessive or unnecessary treatments.
• Billing schemes, such as:
  - charging for a service more expensive than the one provided
  - charging for services that were not provided
  - duplicate charges
• False or exaggerated medical disability.
• Collecting on multiple policies for the same illness or injury.

Tips to Avoid Health Care Fraud

• Protect your health insurance information card like a credit card.
• Beware of free services – is it too good to be true?
• Review your medical bills after receiving healthcare services – Check that the dates and services are correct to ensure you get what you paid for.
• If you suspect health care fraud, you can report it by calling 1-877-327-2583. For more information, visit the web site at http://www.bcbs.com/antifraud

Also, if you sue the fraudster to recover federal benefit money that was illegally taken from the federal government, in many cases you can receive a percentage of the recovery as a reward for uncovering and reporting the fraud!

If you are a victim of fraud, we can help. Call us at 1-888-331-6422 or email us today for a Free Fraud Case Review!

For more information about Ohio Consumer Law and consumer fraud visit our Ohio Consumer Law site.