Healthcare Financial News

Consumer prices for hospital services increased 0.7 percent in September, up from 0.5 percent in August, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. For the 12-month period ended Sept. 30, the seasonally adjusted Consumer Price Index (CPI) for hospitals climbed 7.1 percent, the same as the year-ago period.

In September, the CPI for physician office services rose 0.2 percent for the third consecutive month. For the 12-month period ended in September, the physician index increased 2.9 percent as compared with 3 percent during the year-ago period.

New tips and information to help seniors and Medicare beneficiaries deter, detect and defend against medical identity theft were released today by the Office of the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The tips and a printable brochure are available now at www.StopMedicareFraud.gov and www.oig.hhs.gov/fraud/idtheft.

The materials remind beneficiaries to beware of offers of free medical equipment, services, or goods in exchange for their Medicare numbers. Beneficiaries are also encouraged to regularly review their Medicare Summary Notices, Explanations of Benefits statements, and medical bills for suspicious charges and to report suspected problems.

The effort to help prevent medical identity theft is one part of the Obama Administration’s work to crack down on Medicare fraud.  Antifraud efforts also include the May 2009 establishment of an interagency effort, the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT), to combat Medicare fraud. The HEAT team includes senior officials from DOJ and HHS. HEAT team efforts include the expansion of joint DOJ-HHS Medicare Fraud Strike Force teams that have been fighting fraud in South Florida and Los Angeles to additional cities including Detroit and Houston.