Any activity involving false representation of facts can be regarded as fraud. It is the misrepresentation of facts, often leading to monetary benefit. Fraud can take place in different businesses and industries. Healthcare fraud is one of the most common types of fraud. In some cases, people turn towards healthcare fraud if they are desperate to get treatment. False representation of one’s history or financial situation is common in health care fraud, especially the Medicare program.
The Medicare program allows the elderly (people aged above 65) to receive hospital insurance and social security benefits. Patients, physicians and hospitals can all be guilty of Medicare fraud if they misrepresent facts to give someone an edge over others. The most common forms of Medicare fraud include:
- Waiving off co-payments for the patient
- Paying or accepting kickbacks for a favor regarding Medicare
- Fraudulent diagnosis of the patient
- Billing for unnecessary services that were not provided
Medicare fraud is conducted by individuals alone, but sometimes for larger fraud schemes, entire groups are involved. Sometimes healthcare professionals might mislead the government through false diagnosis. This increases the cost of treatment and is a source of monetary benefit for the individual of the hospital. Medical records might be falsified for this type of fraud to succeed. Falsifying someone’s medical data is also a severe crime and could lead to punishment.
Being charged with Medicare fraud could lead to severe problems for you. It is important to involve an experienced attorney to defend you against the charges. The attorney will come up with a defense strategy and try to get you acquitted.