Sebelius and Holder Announce New Tools to Prevent and Fight Fraud at Boston Regional Healthcare Fraud Prevention Summit As part of the Obama Administration's ongoing efforts to prevent and fight fraud in our nation's health care system, US Department of Health & Human Services Secretary Sebelius and Attorney General Eric Holder today announced that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services would be acquiring new state-of-the-art fraud fighting analytic tools to prevent wasteful and fraudulent payments in Medicare, Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program. Sebelius and Holder made the announcement at the University of Massachusetts, Boston at the fourth regional health care fraud prevention summit. The Attorney General and the HHS Secretary have crisscrossed the country this year bringing together a wide array of federal, state, and local partners, beneficiaries, and providers to discuss innovative ways to eliminate fraud within the US health care system. As part of that summit, CMS will issue a solicitation for state-of-the-art fraud fighting analytic tools to help the agency predict and prevent potentially wasteful, abusive, or fraudulent payments before they occur. These tools will integrate many of the Agency's pilot programs into the National Fraud Prevention Program and complement the work of the joint HHS and Department of Justice Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT). The recently-enacted Affordable Care Act provides additional tools and resources to fight fraud in the health care system by providing an additional $350 million over the next ten years through the Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control Account. The Act toughens sentencing for criminal activity, enhances screenings and enrollment requirements, encourages increased sharing of data across government, expands overpayment recovery efforts, and provides greater oversight of private insurance abuses. For information on the 2009 Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control Program Report, please visit http://www.justice.gov/dag/pubdoc/hcfacreport2009.pdf. To read the entire HHS Release issued on Thursday, December 16, 2010, please visit http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2010pres/12/20101216a.html.
December It's a Busy Time of Year. Make each office visit an opportunity to talk with your patients about the importance of getting the seasonal flu vaccination and a one-time pneumococcal vaccination. Remember, Medicare pays for these vaccinations for all beneficiaries with no co-pay or deductible. The seasonal flu and invasive pneumococcal disease kill thousands of people in the United States each year, most of them 65 years of age or older. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also recommends that health care workers and caregivers be vaccinated against the seasonal flu. Protect your patients. Protect your family. Protect yourself. Get Your Flu Vaccine - Not the Flu. Remember - Influenza vaccine plus its administration are covered Part B benefits. Note that influenza vaccine is NOT a Part D covered drug. For information about Medicare's coverage of the influenza vaccine and its administration, as well as related educational resources for health care professionals and their staff, please visit the following CMS websites: http://www.cms.gov/MLNProducts/Downloads/Flu_Products.pdf and http://www.cms.gov/AdultImmunizations. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Note: If you have problems accessing any hyperlink in this message, please copy and paste the URL into your Internet browser. If you know someone who would like to subscribe to a Medicare Fee-For-Service (FFS) provider listserv, go to (http://www.cms.gov/prospmedicarefeesvcpmtgen/downloads/Provider_Listservs.pdf). If you would like to unsubscribe from a specific provider listserv, please go to (https://list.nih.gov/cgi-bin/wa.exe?INDEX) to unsubscribe or to leave the appropriate listserv. Please DO NOT respond to this email. This email is a service of CMS and routed through an electronic mail server to communicate Medicare policy and operational changes and/or updates. Responses to this email are not routed to CMS personnel. Inquiries may be sent by going to (http://www.cms.gov/ContactCMS). Thank you.
