$3.3 billion in federal health care fraud recovered in 2014

WASHINGTON, March 20 (UPI) -- The crackdown on health-care fraud has resulted in nearly $28 billion being returned to the Medicare Trust Fund, with $3.3 billion in 2014 alone, since the Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control program began in 1997, the Justice Department said.

Attorney General Eric Holder, in a joint announcement with Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell, said $27.8 billion has been secured back into the Medicare Trust Fund since the program began 18 years ago.

The goal of the program is to sniff out fraud in federal healthcare programs, but has been widely criticized in recent weeks for not recouping more from problematic Medicare providers and contractors.

"These impressive recoveries for the American taxpayer demonstrate our continued commitment to this goal and highlight our efforts to prosecute the most egregious instances of health care fraud and prevent future fraud and abuse," Burwell said in a written statement. "New enrollment screening techniques and computer analytics are preventing fraud before money ever goes out the door."

The Obama administration has been cracking down on Medicare fraud and waste, which includes implementing the Medicare Strike Force. Since its inception, Strike Force prosecutors have filed more than 960 cases with nearly 2,100 defendants who have collectively billed Medicare more than $6.5 billon, the government said. Of those, 1,443 defendants pleaded guilty and 191 were convicted.

Fraud is estimated in a widely cited 2012 study to account for up to a high of 10 percent of Medicare's yearly spending, similar to FBI estimates. In 2013, 10 percent of Medicare spending would have amounted to $58 billion. The U.S. recovered less than $3 billion that year.

Earlier this week, two employees of a New Orleans medical clinic pleaded guilty in federal court in a $50 million Medicare fraud. The employees said between 2007 and 2014 fraudulent Medicare claims were submitted for services not medically necessary or not provided.