Recent news stories have proved that fraud is, sadly, rampant when it comes to health care and medical billing – and, according to President Obama and other Democratic leaders in Congress, it’s high time for the federal government to do something about it. In order to combat billing fraud and attempt to recover some of the billions of dollars lost by the government on an annual basis, the President recently signed the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act into law. In addition to creating a joint task force to help track and share data that will enable officials to uncover fraudulent billing practices more quickly and efficiently, the government is also seeking to encourage “whistle-blowers” to come forth by strengthening the the False Claims Act. The False Claims Act is a law allowing whistle-blowers to share in the funds recovered after filing a lawsuit on behalf of the government.

What effect will this new legislation have on the healthcare industry in general, and the billing and coding sectors in particular? According to prominent legal counsel John Boese,  ”Everyone in healthcare believes that’s going to have a significant, immediate impact.”