Allegiant Experts
Mar 7, 20193 min
Super hero movies are all the rage these days. With Aquaman have recently made a big splash, Captain Marvel hitting theaters this week and a new instalment of Avengers headed to big screens next month, there is a huge level of excitement that is only growing among comic book fans and movie-goers alike. If only our world-famous super heroes could combat such evil doers as perpetrators of health care fraud.
Well, believe it or not, such a wish has actually come true! As recently reported by Jake Flatley of West Virginia MetroNews, a crime-fighting team has been formed, specifically to take on health care fraud and the nation’s ongoing opioid crisis.
Announced last month by U.S. Attorney for the
Southern District of West Virginia, Mike Stuart, the group’s focus will be on
health care abuse, recovery and response. He made the announcement at a press
conference in Charleston.
“This is an innovative approach linking civil and
criminal efforts and enforcement efforts together with federal and state
partners for a comprehensive attack on the opioid epidemic and health care
fraud,” Stuart is quoted as saying in Flatley’s report. He goes on to point out
just how damaging health care fraud is to the United States.
The Southern District of West Virginia, Stuart
admits, counts for millions of dollars each year. The high numbers and accounts
of fraud inspired the development of ARREST: a team specially designed to
investigate all health care related cases in the district.
“If folks had any idea of the amount of Medicaid
fraud that we prosecute on an annual basis right in this district right here,
you’d understand the importance of this,” Stuart announced at the presser, “This
is a state heavily reliant on government support. I suspect the number is quite
high, hundreds of millions of dollars.”
As Flatley explains, they include “the Opioid Fraud
and Abuse Detection Unit, Affirmative Civil Enforcement Unit, Appalachian
Regional Prescription Opioid Task Force, Medicare and Medicaid Fraud, and Asset
Forfeiture efforts related to all healthcare matters.”
The team, Stuart contends, is a revolutionary
approach to dealing with health care fraud-related matters. Highlighting the
widespread opioid epidemic and specifying the overprescribing of pills as a
huge problem to attack, Stuart intends to have ARREST aggressively pursue
perpetrators of health care fraud and abuse both civilly and criminally. He
also pointed out that the team could always use the public’s help.
“If we rely only on law enforcement to solve all the
problems of society, we will never get there,” Stuart is quoted as saying at
the press conference, “We have to work together. I know we are in this with the
public, with our communities, with our faith-based community. We have to make
sure we are all working together on the same team.”
At Allegiant Experts, we remain committed to battling the opioid crisis by providing clinical expertise to attorneys trying such health care fraud cases. For more information about how we may be able to help your case, please don’t hesitate to call us at 407-217-5831 or email us at info@allegiantexperts.com.
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