Most Wanted Health Care Fugitives List is HHS OIG's Latest Attempt at Social Outreach and Fraud Prevention
With hundreds of millions of dollars lost to health care related fraud and abuse, the Office of Inspector General (“OIG)” of the Department of Health & Human Services (“HHS”) launched its first ever “Most Wanted Fugitives List” this month. Of the 170 fugitives that the OIG is currently seeking on charges related to health care fraud and abuse, it is reported that the 10 individuals on the Most Wanted list make up the lion’s share of the amount lost - allegedly defrauding taxpayers of more than $124 million.
The Most Wanted list is the latest of several social outreach tools recently implemented by the HHS OIG and various other government agencies to aim at the end-consumer – namely, the tax payer, the recipient of government sponsored health care and/or the provider of services - in an effort to foster consumer involvement, fraud prevention and accountability.
