DOJ Medicare Strike Force and Nurses

The first issue for today is DOJ Medicare Strike Force and Nurses.  The joint Department of Justice and HHS Medicare Fraud Strike Force is a multi-agency team of federal, state and local investigators and prosecutors designed to combat Medicare fraud through the use of Medicare data analysis techniques. More than 500 law enforcement agents from the FBI, HHS-OIG, multiple Medicaid Fraud Control Units, and other state and local law enforcement agencies have been deployed to this project.  

The second topic for this discussion is DEA Registrant Administrative Actions Against Nurse Prescribers.   With the registration of nurse prescribers, the DEA has begun conducting audits of nurse prescribing practices.  Until 2009, the DEA did not take administration action against “mid-level” prescribers, but instead relied on board of nursing to address nurse prescribing problems.  However, with continued focus on controlled substance prescribing, specifically abuses of prescribed controlled substances, the DEA began taking administrative action against nurse prescribers.