Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Kilmartin is calling on the public to be partners in fighting Medicaid fraud by reporting incidents of fraud through an online complaint form, reports Providence Eyewitness News. Individuals can report fraud anonymously through the electronic complaint form, submitting it directly to the Attorney General’s Medical Fraud Control and Patient Abuse Unit for investigation.
Kilmartin says that the form was created because, while everyone knows that Medicaid fraud is a problem, people with knowledge of particular instances of fraud or abuse often don’t report what they know because they don’t know how or they are afraid to come forward. For similar reasons, whistleblowers may choose to turn to an attorney to help them address Medicaid fraud or other instances of fraud against the government.
Medicaid fraud can take a wide variety of forms. Pharmaceutical companies may not report their best price as required by Medicaid. Medical or dental practices may not actually deliver durable medical supplies or perform the medical or dental services or lab testing that they claimed. They may order or perform medically unnecessary services, drugs, or durable medical supplies.
As Rhode Island’s development of an online complaint form shows, authorities depend on information from private citizens to stop fraud. The federal False Claims Act provides incentives to do just that. The False Claims Act allows whistleblowers to file suit on behalf of the federal government and to receive a percentage of any recovery.
Waters & Kraus is a national firm with highly skilled lawyers practicing qui tam litigation in four offices, including Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Baltimore. Our attorneys have decades of experience successfully representing whistleblowers in a variety of fraud cases. Contact us or call our attorneys at 800.226.9880 to learn more about our practice and how we can assist.
