Many people consider white collar crimes such as health care fraud to be victimless crimes. Yet, health care fraud costs companies and patients billions of dollars every year. With so much money at stake, federal and state governments will take health care fraud charges very seriously.
Health care fraud by providers
Health care providers most commonly face charges of fraud related to billing. Common examples may include:
- Double billing
- Billing for more expensive procedures than the one performed
- Performing unnecessary procedures in order to bill for it
- Sending a claim for a service the patient did not have
- Billing personal expenses to a Medicaid account
- Sending more than one bill for a single service
Prescription health care fraud
The pharmaceutical industry creates a major opportunity for white collar crimes. Prescription-related fraud involves:
- Receiving kickbacks for referring a medication or procedure
- Using forgery to obtain a prescription
- Getting prescriptions form multiple health care providers for the same controlled substances
- Selling prescribed medication for a profit
- Improperly charging Medicaid patients for their prescriptions
Consumer health care fraud
While instituations and providers commit a large percentage of health care fraud, patients may face charges too. One of the most common types of fraud committed by patients involves using another person’s insurance card in order to pay for treatments or supplies.
These examples cover other types of patient-related fraud:
- Lying about a worker’s compensation claim for disability payments
- Staging an accident
- Identity theft for the purposes of medical treatments
- Impersonation of a medical professional
Health care fraud penalties
The long-term effects of a health care fraud conviction may involve prison time and hefty fines. If you face a fraud charge, treat the white collar crime as seriously as the state of Louisiana and the federal government will.
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