HCFAC is designed to coordinate federal, state and local law enforcement activities with respect to healthcare fraud and abuse.
The Medicare Trust Fund received about $797 million in fiscal 2007 as a result of these efforts and those of proceedings years. Of this amount, about $201 million were from criminal fines, $211 million in penalties and damages, and $186 million in disallowed payments or payments recovered as a result of HHS/OIG audits.
The annual report also indicates that during fiscal 2007:
- U.S. Attorneys’ Offices opened 878 new criminal healthcare fraud investigations involving 1,548 potential defendants
- Federal prosecutors had 1,612 healthcare fraud criminal investigations pending involving 2,603 potential defendants, and filed criminal charges in 434 cases involving 786 defendants
- 560 defendants were convicted for healthcare fraud-related crimes during the year
- DOJ opened 776 new civil healthcare fraud investigations, and had 743 civil healthcare fraud investigations pending at the end of the fiscal year, and opened 218 new civil healthcare fraud cases during the year
Since HCFAC’s inception in 1997 when it was established by HIPAA, it has returned over $11.2 billion to the Medicare Trust Fund.
View the HCFAC annual report (pdf).
