Bipartisan legislation sponsored by U.S. Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR) to establish a public-private partnership that would identify nationwide healthcare waste, fraud and abuse on Feb. 25 passed the U.S. House of Representatives.
The Strengthening the Health Care Fraud Prevention Task Force Act of 2019, H.R. 525, was sponsored on Jan. 11 by Rep. Walden and cosponsored by U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-NJ), chairman of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee. The bill would improve the integrity of the nation’s healthcare system by codifying the Healthcare Fraud Prevention Partnership, Rep. Walden said on Monday.
“This is an important program that ensures our public and private institutions are better able to detect and stop fraud and abuse in the healthcare system,” said Rep. Walden, the ranking member of the Energy and Commerce Committee.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services currently oversees the Healthcare Fraud Prevention Partnership, which is a voluntary public-private partnership between the federal government, state agencies, law enforcement, private health insurance plans, and healthcare anti-fraud associations.
If enacted, H.R. 525 would reiterate that the partnership would provide technical and operational support to facilitate data sharing between partners; analyze the shared data to identify fraudulent billing patterns; conduct aggregate analyses of shared data across federal, state and private health plans to detect fraud, waste and abuse schemes; and identify outlier trends and potential vulnerabilities of partners involved in such schemes, among other provisions, according to the text of the bill.
The U.S. Senate on Feb. 26 received H.R. 525, which has been referred for consideration to the U.S. Senate Finance Committee.
“I urge my Senate colleagues to swiftly pass this bill so we can better protect consumers and bolster our nation’s health care fraud prevention efforts,” said Rep. Walden.