Effects of Fraud

• In 2007, the National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association (NHCAA) estimated that $68 billion was lost to health care fraud in the United States. According to NHCAA, 250,000 to 500,000 Americans have fallen victim to medical identity theft. Victims often suffer from exhausted insurance benefits and the loss of employment due to falsified diagnoses. Unsuspecting victims are at an increased risk to injury or death because of unnecessary or dangerous medical procedures.
  
  

Perpetrators

• According to NHCCA, most health care fraud is committed by dishonest health care providers. Medical identity theft and criminal rings seeking to scam Medicare and Medicaid programs also contribute to fraud each year.
  
  

Anti-Fraud Training

• NHCAA is a private and public non-profit organization working to provide training in the detection, investigation, prosecution and prevention of health care fraud. It is comprised of government officials, taxpayers, insurers, health care providers and patients.
  
  

NHCAA Institute

• The NHCAA Institute provides accredited training programs with its annual training conference. All participants must occupy a professional position to attend the workshops. The cost for the 2010 training program ranged from $195 to $1,225. Training programs focus on education and fraud prevention with billing, medically unnecessary services, fraudulent medical treatments and procedures.
  
  

Online Learning

• NHCAA provides continuing professional education credit with its e-learning programs to: physicians, vendors, subcontractors, hospitals, health care fraud investigators, pharmacists and law enforcement. This cost-effective program ranges from $39.95 to $395 per program. Online programs offered are: fraud, waste and abuse, coding procedures for fraud investigators, chiropractic fraud schemes and overview of health care fraud.