On August 2, 2017, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the formation of an Opioid Fraud and Abuse Detection Unit as a new Department of Justice (DOJ) pilot program to “utilize data to help combat the devastating opioid crisis that is ravaging families and communities across America.” The new unit will focus on identifying and prosecuting people who contribute to the nation’s prescription opioid fraud and abuse epidemic.

Polish biotech firm Medicalgorithmics, three Texas-based diagnostic testing firms and one executive, Joseph Bogdan, of Fairview, Texas, agreed to a settlement of more than $13.4 million plus interest to resolve accusations that they violated the False Claims Act by submitting fraudulent claims to Medicare for overly expensive cardiac monitoring services, prosecutors say. AMI Monitoring and its affiliate Spectocor, based in McKinney, Texas, and Medi-Lynx Cardiac Monitoring in Plano, Texas, all...

On June 22, 2017, the Republican leadership of the United States Senate unveiled its much-anticipated health care reform bill, titled the “Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017.”

On June 15, 2017, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) announced that it will now make monthly electronic updates to its Work Plan, making it more of a dynamic process that will allow the OIG to inform the public about the efforts and accomplishments of the office on a more real-time basis.

An HHS Office of Inspector General report revealed that nearly 12% of the total CMS incentive payments made for EHR incentive payments, or more than $729 million, were overpaid to eligible providers that did not meet meaningful use requirements. Officials advised the agency to try to recover the more than $700 million in inappropriate payments and the $2.3 million it overpaid to providers who switched from Medicaid to Medicare incentive programs.