House passes fraud bill to keep executives associated with wrongdoing from future Medicare business

The Hill's Healthwatch Blog: The House Wednesday passed a bill that would ban executives from "doing business with Medicare if their companies were convicted of fraud, even if the conviction takes place after their departure. The bill was introduced by the Ways and Means health panel's chairman and ranking member, Reps. Pete Stark (D-Calif.) and Wally Herger (R-Calif.)." The CBO said a few individuals would be affected by the law and that it would not have a "significant budgetary impact" (Pecquet, 9/22).

Health News Florida: The bill will "plug holes in the law that enable companies and executives to keep defrauding Medicare and Medicaid without serious penalties. … The bill, titled Strengthening Medicare Anti-Fraud Measures Act, addresses two gaps in existing law: Executives who preside over companies while they're committing health fraud are able to jump to another company, without suffering consequences. The bill would let OIG bar them from continuing to do business with federal health programs. … Companies that engage in fraud often set up shell companies to take the fall, shielding the parent company from any real penalty" (Gentry, 9/22).

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This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.