Fighting Fraud and Making Medicare Stronger

Fighting Medicare fraud has long been a top priority for President Obama. Today, we are releasing a new infographic that describes how the Affordable Care Act – the new health care law – is helping the Obama Administration crack down on Medicare fraud and make Medicare stronger. The new infographic shows how the law increases penalties for criminals who commit fraud and provides new enforcement tools to stop fraud and save taxpayers money. 

We are committed to using these new tools to fight Medicare and other health care fraud, and we are getting results:  The Administration’s anti-fraud efforts recovered $4.1 billion in taxpayer dollars last year, the second year recoveries hit this record-breaking level. Total recoveries over the last three years were $10.7 billion. Prosecutions are way up, too: the number of individuals charged with fraud increased from 797 in fiscal year 2008 to 1,430 in fiscal year 2011 – a more than 75 percent increase.

Just last week, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Justice announced “a nationwide takedown by Medicare Fraud Strike Force operations in seven cities has resulted in charges against 107 individuals, including doctors, nurses and other licensed medical professionals, for their alleged participation in Medicare fraud schemes involving approximately $452 million in false billing.”  And on Monday, the Departments announced that, as a part of their Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team initiative, they had resolved an investigation into a pharmaceutical company’s unlawful promotion of a prescription drug.  The Justice Department reported that, “the resolution – the second largest payment by a drug company – includes a criminal fine and forfeiture totaling $700 million and civil settlements with the federal government and the states totaling $800 million.” 

The infographic also shows how the Affordable Care Act is making Medicare stronger and providing new benefits. For example:

• 32.5 million people with Medicare received at least one free preventive service thanks to the health care law.
• People with Medicare who hit the prescription drug donut hole have already saved $3.4 billion on their prescription drugs.
• By 2021, the average person with Medicare will save nearly $4,200 thanks to the new health care law.

Click here to download a PDF of the graphic

You can learn more about these efforts and our work to implement the Affordable Care Act by visiting whitehouse.gov/healthreform.