Holder, Sebelius warn hospitals against fraud

The Obama administration warned hospitals Monday not to use electronic health records to illegally boost their Medicare payments.

Attorney General Eric Holder and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius laid out their concerns in a letter to hospital trade associations, including the American Hospital Association and the Federation of American Hospitals.

Holder and Sebelius reiterated the administration's support for electronic records, which can help reduce errors and improve efficiency.

"However, there are troubling indications that some providers are using this technology to game the system, possibly to obtain payments to which they are not entitled," they wrote. "False documentation of care is not just bad patient care; it’s illegal."

Holder and Sebelius noted that the Obama administration has launched aggressive new efforts to crack down on Medicare fraud and said law enforcement agencies will continue to scrutinize healthcare billing.

The letter cites reports that hospitals have exaggerated patients' conditions to increase their reimbursements, or have cut and pasted information from one form to another.

"We will not tolerate health care fraud," the letter states. "The President initiated in 2009 an unprecedented Cabinet-level effort to combat health care fraud and protect the Medicare trust fund, and we take those responsibilities very seriously."

---