Medicare, Medicaid fraud summit being considered

The Obama administration is considering a way to bring together patients, doctors, insurers and law officers to combat fraud in Medicare and Medicaid, a Health and Human Services official said Wednesday.

The summit, still under consideration, would enhance an increased effort to find and prosecute fraud in the programs, said William Corr, deputy HHS secretary.

"A summit of this nature will bring fresh ideas and collaborations that we believe will result in more effective methods of preventing and detecting fraud," Corr told the Senate Judiciary Committee.

A key part of health care reform is controlling the cost of the government insurance programs for seniors and the poor. Corr said HHS investigations have led to recovery of $4 billion in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30.

The administration created a Justice Department-HHS team last May on preventing health care fraud.

"We are identifying perpetrators of fraud, recovering the money they stole and removing them from federal health programs providing health care coverage to elderly, low-income and disabled beneficiaries," Corr said.

The government is using new methods of data analysis and intelligence gathering to detect patterns of crime and the regions with the worst problems, he said.

Federal and state spending on the two programs exceeds $800 billion a year, and there is no official dollar estimate of fraud, said Assistant Attorney General Tony West. He said nongovernment estimates project the amount at 3 to 10 percent of total spending.