HHS inspector general: Many Medicare anti-fraud contractors have ties to companies they investigate

The Associated Press reports that as many as two-thirds of these contractors had financial connections to claims processors. 

The Associated Press: Study: Medicare Contractors Vulnerable To Conflict
Firms that are paid tens of millions of dollars to root out Medicare fraud are bidding on contracts to investigate companies they are doing business with -; sometimes their own parent companies, according to a government report released Tuesday. Two-thirds of the companies that bid on contracts during a nearly year-and-a-half time period beginning in October of 2010 had financial ties to claims processors -; and in some cases also processed Medicare claims themselves, according to the study by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' inspector-general (Kennedy, 7/10).

In other related news -

The Hill: HHS Inspector General: Health Grants Could Have Illegally Funded Lobbying
Federal healthcare grants might have been illegally used for political lobbying, according to the Health and Human Services Department's inspector general. The inspector general said grants administered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) might have been used for lobbying efforts -; and that the CDC might have led recipients to believe lobbying was appropriate, despite a federal ban on using grant money for political activism. Inspector General Daniel Levinson outlined his office's findings in an "early alert" letter to CDC Director Thomas Frieden, a copy of which was obtained by The Hill (Baker, 7/10).