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 Putting TRAC to Work |
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February 1, 2012 |
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2011—The Year In Review: Trends in Health Care Enforcement The First in a Continuing Series
By Hope S. Foster, Tracy A. Miner, Brian P. Dunphy , Saman tha P. Kingsbury, and Stephanie D. Willis
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The federal government is increasingly filing charges under broadly worded criminal statutes that are not specific to health care fraud to capture wider ranges of conduct than are covered by the health-care-specific statutes. This
charging pattern suggests a strategic decision by the government to charge defendants with crimes that require less evidence of criminal intent or activity to secure a plea or conviction.
Although the number of criminal cases with a lead charge under the federal Health Care Fraud statute (18 U.S.C. §1347) historically has been, and continues to be, high, 2011 saw a dramatic increase in the use of the mail and wire
fraud statutes, among others, to prosecute health care crimes. The mail fraud conspiracy statute was the most common lead charge in criminal health care fraud matters that DOJ filed in 2011; federal prosecutors reported 372 such cases, representing a 292% increase from cases charged under the same statute (as the lead charge) in 2010. 2011 also saw a 1550% increase in the number of cases where wire fraud was the lead charge......[citing TRAC research].
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Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, Syracuse University
Copyright 2012
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