Med Mal News

2011 Health Care Fraud Recoveries Top $4 Billion

In a Feb. 14 report to Congress, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) tallied its successes in investigating and prosecuting health care fraud in 2011. As a result of these achievements, last year 743 defendants were convicted of crimes related to health care fraud, and the federal government recovered a total of $4.1 billion in judgments, civil penalties and settlements. Among those convicted was a Florida doctor who diagnosed almost all his patients with a rare blood disorder, which he treated with expensive medications in order to receive Medicare reimbursements. A California defendant was found guilty of recruiting approximately 200 Medicare recipients off the streets and telling them that if they gave her their Medicare information she could get them expensive power wheelchairs that they neither needed nor wanted. And the co-owner of two Michigan nerve conduction clinics was convicted of a Medicare fraud scheme involving payments to recruiters for bringing patients to the clinics for unnecessary tests. The report is available at: http://oig.hhs.gov/publications/docs/hcfac/hcfacreport2011.pdf

Under Proposed Rule, Doctors' Specialties Would Be Identified Up Front

New Jersey's Civil Practice Rules Committee has proposed a new rule to help medical malpractice plaintiffs avoid a mistake that can be costly, and sometimes fatal, to their cases: obtaining an affidavit of merit from the wrong type of doctor. The rule change proposal was prompted by a case decided last year in which a plaintiff saw his suit thrown out because he obtained affidavits of merit from two doctors who did not share the defendant doctor's specialty. Revised Rule 4:5-3 would require a defendant doctor to identify his or her specialty in answer to the suit, and to state whether the treatment provided to the plaintiff involved that specialty.

2011 Health Care Fraud Recoveries Top $4 Billion

In a Feb. 14 report to Congress, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) tallied its successes in investigating and prosecuting health care fraud in 2011. As a result of these achievements, last year 743 defendants were convicted of crimes related to health care fraud, and the federal government recovered a total of $4.1 billion in judgments, civil penalties and settlements. Among those convicted was a Florida doctor who diagnosed almost all his patients with a rare blood disorder, which he treated with expensive medications in order to receive Medicare reimbursements. A California defendant was found guilty of recruiting approximately 200 Medicare recipients off the streets and telling them that if they gave her their Medicare information she could get them expensive power wheelchairs that they neither needed nor wanted. And the co-owner of two Michigan nerve conduction clinics was convicted of a Medicare fraud scheme involving payments to recruiters for bringing patients to the clinics for unnecessary tests. The report is available at: http://oig.hhs.gov/publications/docs/hcfac/hcfacreport2011.pdf

Under Proposed Rule, Doctors' Specialties Would Be Identified Up Front

New Jersey's Civil Practice Rules Committee has proposed a new rule to help medical malpractice plaintiffs avoid a mistake that can be costly, and sometimes fatal, to their cases: obtaining an affidavit of merit from the wrong type of doctor. The rule change proposal was prompted by a case decided last year in which a plaintiff saw his suit thrown out because he obtained affidavits of merit from two doctors who did not share the defendant doctor's specialty. Revised Rule 4:5-3 would require a defendant doctor to identify his or her specialty in answer to the suit, and to state whether the treatment provided to the plaintiff involved that specialty.