Health care fraud imposes an enormous cost to the health care
system
and to our nation's economy as a whole. While no one has an exact figure,
the
General Accounting Office estimates that health care fraud, waste and abuse
may
account for as much as 10 percent of all health care expenditures. Health
care
expenditures now exceed one trillion dollars each year, so that more than
$100
billion may be lost in fraud, waste and abuse annually. Health care fraud
also
undermines both the cost and quality of health care provided to patients.
The Department's health care fraud efforts are centered in the
United
States Attorneys' Offices, the Criminal Division and the Civil Division.
These
efforts are coordinated by the Special Counsel to the Deputy Attorney
General.
Yet successful health care fraud enforcement cannot be achieved by
the
Department of Justice acting alone. Americans currently receive health care
from
a plethora of private health insurance companies and several public
programs.
Each public program has its own rules for the provision of services,
reimbursement for the costs of services, and the investigation of fraud.
Perpetrators of health care fraud, however, rarely infiltrate just one
health
care system.