Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

Mortgage and financial fraud law could crack down on your medical practice. If you've watched the news over the last few weeks, you're aware that President Obama signed the Federal Enforcement and Recovery Act (FERA) of 2009 to focus on mortgage and banking fraud. But what you may not have known is that also tucked into the legislation is language that could greatly affect your health care practice. Section 4 of the bill, titled "Clarifications to the False Claims Act (FCA) to Reflect the Original Intent of the Law," makes several changes that apply to medical practices. First, the law defines "obligation" to include the phrase, "arising from statute or regulation, or from the retention of any overpayment," regardless of whether you originally submitted a "false claim." This suggests that you could be obligated under the False Claims Act if you have, for instance, created backdated medical records to support [...]