G2 News-At-A-Glance: OIG Boosts Recoveries

The Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) said expected recoveries for the first half of fiscal year 2013 would reach roughly $4 billion, nearly four times the expected recoveries from the first half of FY 2012 ($1 billion), according to the agency’s Semiannual Report to Congress, released May 30. OIG said it also excluded 1,661 individuals and entities from participating in federal health care programs, initiated 484 criminal actions, and initiated 240 civil actions, including False Claims Act cases and administrative recoveries associated with provider self-disclosures. Much of OIG’s results from the first half of FY 2013 have been the result of partnering with other agencies, OIG Inspector General Daniel R. Levinson said in the report’s introduction. For example, Levinson highlighted the work of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, which has “resulted in over $887 million in investigative receivables and over 800 criminal actions” from 2007 through the first half of FY 2013. During the first six months of FY 2013, the strike force work led to charges being filed against 148 individuals or entities, helped initiate 139 criminal actions, and resulted in $194 million in investigative receivables, OIG said. The $194 million in receivables was almost four times the amount recovered by the strike force in the first half of FY 2012. Strike force efforts in October 2012 resulted in 91 people being charged with fraud involving $429 million in false billings.