HHS and the Department of Justice have joined together to create the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT) to detect and prevent Medicare and Medicaid fraud, as reported by the Washington Post. HEAT will meet biweekly, and enforcement teams in Miami and Los Angeles will be expanded and new teams will be established in Houston and Detroit. Task forces in 10 other unnamed major cities are also scheduled to be established. The AP/Houston Chronicle reports that enforcement teams will increase site visits to DME suppliers upon their enrollment and that training will be expanded to help providers identify and prevent fraud or other mistakes. The Miami Herald reports that health care fraud costs US taxpayers at least $60 billion a year.
