Pay BillBillions of dollars are lost to health care fraud each year. The goal of the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) is to detect, deter, and ultimately, end fraud. Health care fraud can affect everyone…including you. Only a small percentage of health care providers and consumers engage in health care fraud. However, even a small amount of health care fraud can raise the cost of health care benefits for everyone.
What is Health Care Fraud
Fraud is stealing and it is a crime. It’s committed when a dishonest provider or consumer intentionally submits, or causes someone else to submit false or misleading information in order to obtain benefits they may not be entitled to. Some examples of provider health care fraud are:
- Billing for services not actually performed
- Falsifying a patients diagnosis to justify test, surgeries or other procedures that aren’t medically necessary
- Misrepresenting procedures performed to obtain payment for non-covered services, such as cosmetic surgery
- Upcoding - billing for a more costly service than the one actually performed
- Unbundling - billing each state of a procedure as if it were a separate procedure
- Accepting kickbacks for patient referrals
- Waiving patient co-pays or deductibles and over-billing the insurance carrier or benefit plan
- Billing a patient more than the co-pay amount for services that were prepaid or paid in full by the benefit plan under the terms of a managed care contract.
Some examples of consumer health care fraud are:
- Filing claims for services or medications not received
- Forging or altering bills or receipts
- Using someone else’s coverage or insurance card
- Leaving your spouse on your health insurance contract after your divorce date
- Leaving other dependents (children) on your health insurance contract when they are no longer eligible (age, marriage)
Our Special Investigations Unit
Nine full time employees, whose main function is to investigate allegations of fraud and abusive billing practices, staff the Special Investigations Unit. The staff includes a manager, an accredited Health Care Fraud Investigator, Registered Nurses with coding backgrounds, a specialist as well as a coordinator.
The unit is a member of the National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association which provides current information on legislation and continuing education for all staff members.
Our Relationship with Law Enforcement Agencies
The Special Investigations Unit has an ongoing relationship with the New York State Insurance Department Frauds Bureau. As required by Article IV of the Insurance Law, the Insurance Department is notified of all instances of suspected fraud. The Unit works closely with the Frauds Bureau on these investigations.
The unit also works directly with the local district attorneys, Medicaid Fraud Control Units, United States Attorney General’s offices as well as each entity’s investigative arms. The department Director is part of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Task Force on Health Care Fraud. The Unit also has ongoing relationships with regulatory and enforcement agencies such as the Department of HHS, FBI, Inspector General, U.S. Post Office, and the New York Departments of Education and Health
Fraud Laws and Deficit Reduction Act Notice Policy
How to Report Potential Fraud Abuse
Employees, providers, and contractors may report suspected fraud, waste, and abuse directly to their immediate supervisors/Independent Health contact or by directly contacting Independent Health’s SIU staff, Corporate Compliance staff, or by sending an email to SIU@independenthealth.com. Independent Health also has contracted with a third-party vendor (Report It) to facilitate our anonymous and confidential compliance, ethics, and FWA helpline, which allows workforce members to report issues of actual or suspected noncompliance and ethical concerns confidentially and anonymously. The confidential and anonymous helpline may be accessed 24/7/365 by calling 1-877-229-4916 or via web access at http://reportit.net using username: IHA and password: redshirt. Members also have access to the FWA phone number on the back of their member insurance card. In addition, Independent Health maintains an FWA hotline, which is managed by SIU, who takes steps to ensure confidentiality of reported issues. The SIU hotline number is 1-800-665-1182. Associates can also direct dial any member of the SIU team, or our general reporting number (716) 631-3001 ext 5229. All reports will be promptly investigated and logged by the SIU.
c/o Independent Health, Inc.
511 Farber Lakes Drive
Williamsville, NY 14221
Fraud and Abuse Reporting form