PROGRAMS & SERVICES

Medi-Cal Fraud

Medi-Cal fraud is generally defined as the billing of the Medi-Cal program for services, drugs, or supplies that are:

• Unnecessary
  
• Not performed
  
• More costly than those actually performed
  
  

Medi-Cal fraud also refers to paying and/or receiving kickbacks for Medi-Cal billing referrals.

According to the United States General Accounting Office and health insurance industry sources, between 3% and 10% of any state's Medicaid budget is lost due to fraud and abuse. Based on these figures, California's Medi-Cal losses can reach billions of dollars annually.

The financial burden for health care fraud lands firmly on the shoulders of the people of California in the form of higher premiums for health insurance and increased taxes for social programs. For those needing health care services, Medi-Cal fraud means the loss of already scarce funds to pay for vital services. There are also direct public health risks created by those who turn a profit by re-using syringes, performing needless medical procedures, or assigning unqualified staff to provide treatment.

Combating fraud and abuse of the state's Medi-Cal program is a team of dedicated prosecutors, special agents and forensic auditors in the Attorney General's Bureau of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse.

Nationally recognized as being innovative and cutting-edge in its law enforcement approaches, the Bureau of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse aggressively pursues criminals who are directly or indirectly involved in filing false claims for medical services, drugs, or supplies. These perpetrators can be registered Medi-Cal providers who allow others to use their billing privileges, or crooks who manage to tap into the billing privileges of registered providers. They can be identity thieves who steal information from providers and patients, or beneficiaries who accept payment for using a particular provider or for selling their Medi-Cal identities. Suspects can encompass anyone who is involved in the administration of the Medi-Cal program, including government workers and employees of contracting agencies.

Under the direction of Attorney General Bill Lockyer, the Bureau entered the new millennium as one of the most aggressive and successful health care fraud prosecutorial agencies in the nation.