Florida health agency will use voice recognition to crack down on health fraud

The Associated Press/Miami Herald: Florida health officials announced they will "begin using voice recognition technology to verify whether patients in Miami-Dade County are actually receiving home health care services the state is being billed for." The state's Agency for Health Care Administration plans to launch this pilot program in July in South Florida, "which is the national epicenter of Medicare and Medicaid fraud." Investigators say medical providers have billed the system millions in home health services that were never provided (5/5).

NBC Miami: "A Miami HIV/AIDS clinic owner was convicted Tuesday of running a $5.8 million health care fraud scheme, involving his 76-year-old aunt as one of several fake 'patients' in need of care. David Marrero, 49, was found guilty of using his business, Tendercare Medical Center Inc., to defraud Medicare in a scheme run between January 2005 and December 2007. Marrero ... was also convicted on money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering charges" (Hamacher, 5/5).

South Florida Business Journal: "Medicare paid about $2.7 million as a result" of Marrero's fraudulent claims, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.  Sentencing for Marrero "is set for July 30. He faces up to 10 years in prison on each count, and a fine of up to $250,000 or twice the gain or loss, whichever is greater. Marrero's case is part of a Justice Department crackdown by a strike force that was launched in Miami in 2007" (5/5).

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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.