In a bold move to ramp up efforts to combat health care fraud in the United States, members of the health care industry have created the national Consortium to Combat Medical Fraud.
The Consortium is comprised of organizations from government, law enforcement, and the insurance industry. The founding members of the consortium include the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud, the National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association, and the National Insurance Crime Bureau, along with participation from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Justice.
Health care fraud pervades the entire health care industry and is becoming increasingly sophisticated. It is perpetrated by individual fraudsters as well as organized crime syndicates. The Consortium was designed to respond to the broad scope of health care fraud and the need for a multilateral, more integrated approach to the problem. The consortium will harmonize the efforts of these organizations by facilitating education and data sharing to better detect and prevent health care fraud.
As technology utilization in health care expands, so will the complexity of fraud. The emergence of electronic health records and insurance claims will undoubtedly give rise to increasingly sophisticated fraud schemes, further strengthening the case for greater cooperation within the health care industry and beyond.





