Fraud in the News... — May 22, 2009

May 22, 2009 -

There were several fraud prevention efforts highlighted in the news this week...

On May 20, in an effort to stem the flow of tens of billions of dollars in Medicare and Medicaid fraud, HHS and DOJ announced a joint effort to stop such fraud. These efforts include expanding the teams used to detect and fight health care fraud from two teams to four, using technology to conduct data analysis to find fraud faster than previous manual analysis efforts, and providing hotlines and websites for people to report fraud.

Also on May 20, the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act (FERA) was signed into law. The purpose of this act is:

"An Act to improve enforcement of mortgage fraud, securities and commodities fraud, financial institution fraud, and other frauds related to Federal assistance and relief programs, for the recovery of funds lost to these frauds, and for other purposes."

This will be done in part by expanding the definition of fraudulent acts, closing loopholes, and providing funding and tools to DOJ and other agencies in fighting fraud. For example, the SEC is appropriated an additional $20 million for each of 2010 and 2011 for investigations into financial institutions and an additional $1 million per year in 2010 and 2011 for the SEC IG salaries and expenses.