Congress takes aim at Medicare contractors
Congress takes aim at Medicare contractors
Congress is zeroing in on the Health Care Financing Administration's (HCFA) oversight of Medicare carriers in the wake of a $74 million settlement announced last week with Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Connecticut. Peter Sheffield, a spokesman for House Commerce Committee Rep. Tom Bliley (R-VA), says those hearings will likely coincide with release of a study by the General Accounting Office into HCFA's oversight of the 64 carriers that oversee the $217 billion Medicare program.
According to Stephen Robinson, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut, the settlement addresses Anthem's financial responsibility for fraudulent conduct by its predecessor, Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Connecticut, to conceal its failure to meet performance standards by falsifying cost reports. "This represents the largest civil settlement in a health care fraud case in Connecticut and the second largest involving a Medicare contractor in the history of the United States."
Bliley noted that seven major cases have already been brought against Medicare contractors resulting in more than $300 million in civil and criminal settlements.
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