Chairman Carper Commends Administration’s Efforts to Recover Healthcare Fraud

WASHINGTON- Today, Senator Tom Carper (D-Del.), Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, commended the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) for working together to recover $4.3 billion in healthcare fraud during the Fiscal Year 2013.

“Today’s announcement is a promising reminder of what we can accomplish by aggressively pursuing healthcare fraud,” said Chairman Carper. “In addition to recouping $4.3 billion, the actions HHS and DOJ have taken serve as a deterrent to anyone who may be considering abusing federal healthcare programs, including Medicare or Medicaid. I am confident that continued vigilance will produce even better results in 2014 and beyond, and I will continue working with the Administration and my Congressional colleagues to provide additional tools and resources for reducing healthcare fraud.”

The Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control (HCFAC) Program report is an annual report that tracks the amount of fraudulent healthcare spending that the government is able to recover through joint efforts between the HHS and DOJ. The $4.3 billion found in 2013 is a record amount in the 17 year history of the HCFAC Program. In the past five years alone, the program has recovered $19.2 billion and over $25.9 billion since its inception in 1997. Additionally, the report found that for every dollar spent on fraud recovery efforts, the government recouped $8.10.

Chairman Carper has focused on reducing improper and fraudulent payments in healthcare programs for many years. In June of 2013, Chairman Carper joined a bipartisan group of legislators and introduced the Preventing and Reducing Improper Medicare and Medicaid Expenditures Act of 2013 (PRIME Act) to cut down on waste, fraud and abuse in the Medicare and Medicaid programs.