DOJ and HHS Join Forces to form HEAT
A New Joint Agency to Fight Fraud
Not to be outdone by the current initiatives to recover monies from healthcare fraud, the Department of Justice and Health and Human Services are joining forces to fight fraud in the Medicare and Medicaid programs.
The new Joint Agency, HEAT, which stands for the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team, will meet biweekly to coordinate federal and state efforts to curb fraud against the health care programs.
HEAT began as an experimental agency in South Florida and successfully recouped millions of dollars in durable medical equipment fraud. The South Florida strike force combined efforts from the DOJ, HHS and local police.
HEAT will be funded by the Heath Care Fraud and Abuse Control account,created by Congress and included in HIPAA to fund joint anti-fraud efforts and by the 2010 budget, where in the President requested $311 million increase in funding to be used for oversight and enforcement activities in Medicare and Medicaid.
