Congress should get serious about reforming Medicare False Claims Act

In the 7 years since its creation, the Medicare Fraud Strike Force (MFSF) has indicted more than 1,500 individuals for Medicare fraud. Based on Department of Justice (DOJ) statistics, those 1,500 people collectively billed the Medicare program for more than $5 billion. While these numbers seem large, they hide the real and inherent value of the work being done in the nine MFSF cities across the country.The value of the MFSF is in its ability to deter crime and bears no relationship to the recovery of money for the Medicare trust fund. Assuming the 1,500 defendants billed in excess of the charged crimes and that media coverage of the prosecutions impacted the communities, MFSF operations probably saved taxpayers approximately $50 billion in only 7 years.