U.S. departments report fraud recoveries

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WASHINGTON, Feb. 11 (UPI) -- Efforts to combat healthcare fraud recovered $4.2 billion, the U.S. Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services said in a report.

The report, released Monday, indicated that for every dollar spent on healthcare related fraud and abuse investigations since 2010, the government recovered $7.90, and $4.2 billion in taxpayer dollars was recovered in fiscal year 2012, up from $4.1 billion in fiscal year 2011.

"This was a record-breaking year for the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services in our collaborative effort to crack down on healthcare fraud," said Attorney General Eric Holder in the report, crediting the Health Care Fraud prevention and Enforcement Action Team, or HEAT, created in 2009 to investigate fraud and abuse in Medicare and Medicaid programs.