United States Attorney General Eric Holder and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius are making a stop in Miami to outline their plan to fight health care fraud.
South Florida easily ranks number one when it comes to healthcare fraud in the U.S., which is why the two are holding the first of several meetings across the nation right here.
And it's why the feds picked Miami to launch its first task force to fight Medicare fraud five years ago, with astonishing results: In South Florida alone, the U.S. Attorney's Task Force, which includes the FBI, has indicted 860 people in 567 cases involving $2,521,000,000 in Medicare fraud.
The numbers are staggering, dwarfing stats in other regions.
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Yet healthcare fraud overall remains so rampant that by the time you’re finished reading this story, an industry trade group says another $1 million will be stolen in healthcare fraud
Healthcare fraud comes in many forms. Recently, Florida authorities captured hidden camera video of crooks staging a fake fender bender. It showed several thugs crunching two cars together in a parking lot and high fiving each other with delight.
Then they insert people into the car and call police, so that a real accident report gives their bogus medical claims more credence.
Next they go to a medical clinic for the fake medical claims in exchange for big cash. It sometimes requires a real doctor to put a real signature on fake documents for about a hundred bucks a signature.
But Medicare fraud is different. More profitable. The FBI is looking for scores more fugitives who they say stole money from the taxpayers.
The big money explains why, despite so many arrests, crooks keep finding new ways to defraud the taxpayers, and preventing that money from going to patients who really need it.
They are often sentenced to decades in prison. And now the White House is proposing those sentences be doubled.
"For every dollar we spend combating health care fraud,” said Holder, “we're able to return four dollars to the U.S. Treasury and the American taxpayers."
Healthcare fraud affects your taxes and your insurance rates and the cost of your medical care.
Friday, Holder and Sebelius are expected to make some major announcements in the fight against this fraud.
