The Justice and Health & Human Services departments are joining forces to crack down on Medicare and Medicaid fraud. The Washington Post reports that this task force was created on Wednesday to put an end to fraudulent claims on Medicare and Medicaid programs, which fund healthcare for the poor, elderly, and disabled. According to the article, the recent gloomy forecast for Medicare may have provided an impetus for creating this new task force: "The announcement comes a week after the trustees who monitor Medicare's finances predicted that the trust fund . . . will be depleted by 2017, a year earlier than previously expected."
The government has dubbed this task force the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT), and you can find more information about the program on its website. On this page you can read the mission of and actions taken or planned by HEAT.
What constitutes Medicare fraud, exactly? The Health and Human Services website provides an overview.
For more information about Medicare and Medicaid, see our guide to Health and Medical Information.
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