Important Tips to Select the Right Healthcare Fraud Lawyer

The term fraud basically means the usage of misrepresentation or deceit in order to gain valuable items, money or goods from others. The healthcare fraud is not a different concept. Its victims may involve either healthcare practitioners or patients. However, the culprit needs to pay serious penalties to the victims if found guilty in the case. Thus, to deal away with the situation effectively and wisely, a healthcare fraud lawyer becomes the need of the hour.

Diversity of healthcare frauds

The United States alone accounts for an overall healthcare fraud of over $80 billion within a year as per the investigation of FBI. At times, you can easily differentiate between right and wrong while some cases may have blurred lines between illegal and legal. Here are some of the most prominent healthcare frauds that people usually experience in the US –

• False billing: At times, the healthcare providers provide the bills for such services that are costly rather than those provided. This is in no circumstance a legally acceptable procedure that calls for strict actions against the practitioners.
• Double billing: This is yet another most common phenomenon that patients face with the healthcare providers. They unnecessary charge you twice for any single service, treatment or product.
• Kickbacks:The situation of kickback arises when the practitioners intentionally demand for payments, services or products to solicit any healthcare program for the patients.
• Phantom billing: This type of fraud involves charging for such tests that practitioners not even perform. 

Finding the right defense lawyer

Whether you are a practitioner or a client, if, at any instance, you find yourself stuck in a situation of healthcare fraud; you immediately need to contact a reputed healthcare fraud lawyer for better assistance. Although, various criminal defense lawyers are available at your service, consulting a specialized attorney can give you a distinctive approach. Here are few tips that you can consider while hiring the right lawyer for your case –

• Make a list of top skilled healthcare fraud lawyers of your city.
• Examine their past experience and number of cases dealt by them.
• Check if they are compliant with the official governing bodies or not.

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Acquire an Attorney, Having Excellent Knowledge for Whistleblower Protection Acts

When you eyewitness fraud nearby you, it becomes essential to hire a Whistle blower lawyer to immediately file such a case. These qualified lawyers or attorneys keep your identity confidential as a surreptitious and take appropriate steps to catch the third person who is responsible for the fraud. To help you out in a safe and secure manner you can consult leading law firms. Deciding a law firm to stand for you in the whistleblower proceedings is the major decision that affects the result of the case. These firms’ have experts who work professionally while maintaining clients privacy and security.

These companies have their own official websites so that you can browse and know detailed information about assorted law firms. Their informative sites have complete detail that you want to gather. If you still have some query, contact them and they will consult you better solution in a very trouble-free manner. You must anticipate positive results from the attorney. Here are some important tips that you must follow while hiring a whistle-blower attorney.

• Hire a lawyer who has years of experience in Qui Tam law or commonly known as False Claims Act.
• A legal representative having good experience in the particular field is able to solve the case efficiently. The expert lawyer knows better what type of proceedings can help your case and they put all his concentration to resolve it.
• A transparent relationship between you and your lawyer is must. Maintain a good connection to discuss your issues to get courteous replies. Some experts can provide free conference to discuss your case additionally for faster results.
• They must have proper regulations to keep your details confidential. First gather complete knowledge for the firm, if you feel pleased and comfortable only then discuss your matter.

Consider these factors before employing a firm of individual for your case. A Whistleblower lawyer has appropriate knowledge and understanding to Qui Tam law and has experience of solving different matters. Some of the companies are providing their services at very sensible cost for better convenience of their clients.

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How healthcare Defence Lawyers Investigate Medicare Fraud Cases?

In any situation when a customer or a client is under investigation due to any consequences of fraud billing, billing of unnecessary medical services, etc. the person has no time to waste by introducing his Medicare fraud attorney to the procedure involving the necessities of medical involving coding, billing, etc.

The healthcare-related fraud exposure requires an investigation of the providers and owners under same rules and regulations. The person who falls in for a contract, whether directly or indirectly or takes payment for unfair services also goes under the process of investigations. Mainly the fraud cases arise from the following areas:

• Hospitals

• Entities owned by Physicians

• Medical Laboratories

• Companies and Owners of Pharmacy

• Companies of Medical Devices,

The customers expect from the Medicare fraud defense lawyer to incorporate a speedy working on how to proceed further by incorporating defending strategies. Mainly they follow the following key features for defending a Medicare fraud case:

• Knowledge- The healthcare fraud attorney has quite an efficient and appropriate knowledge of CMS Protocols, blunders of billing and coding, its violations, etc. which increases the chances of the dismissal of case.

• Experience- A healthcare fraud lawyer, well equipped with relevant experience, can negotiate between acts with thin line discrimination in front of the law. Prominent of these examples include liabilities and errors by humans. These lawyers persuade the government in a way, which makes the government to focus on the provided details.

• Civil Approach- A Medicare fraud attorney takes a civil approach avoiding the criminal way. This approach includes influencing the government that the existing errors were not a pre-planned intention, but the results of an accidental human error.

When making a choice regarding any Medicare fraud attorney, the record of accomplishment of the concerned person regarding solved cases and experience in similar situations needs more focus. An experienced can only come forward for helping a newbie.

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Some of the Types of Health Care Frauds - Haberslaw Can Help You With

Healthcare fraud may be prosecuted in Federal or State Court, depending upon the situations of each case, the proof mounted against the suspect and the cost associated with the healthcare fraud wrongdoing or faults.

Types of Health Care Fraud

There are many ways in which healthcare institutions and medical professionals may be charged with health care frauds. Some specific examples of health care fraud are:

• Billing or prescribing unnecessary procedures or services
• Making bribes or self-referrals
• Trying to bill for services not rendered
• Proposing or billing for medical equipment which is not provided
• Prescribing or billing avoidable medical equipment
• Creating fake cost reports
• Submitting claims for health care services rendered to non-existing patients

Healthcare fraud lawyer represents the legal rights and goals of those facing criminal healthcare fraud charges, or other criminal defense issues.  To obtain justice, contact a skilled healthcare attorney for a free and confidential consultation. Now here comes a million dollar question: how to select the best healthcare lawyer? Fortunately, there are many tips available to help you narrow the search and make a right choice.

Find A Healthcare Attorney That Best Suits Your Needs: First, there are a lot of attorneys out there, but how to find the right healthcare attorney that best suits your needs? Second, you need to find a lawyer who knows how to handle your case best. Many attorneys specialize in one type of law. A specialist in personal injury law won’t be your ideal option if you need a healthcare lawyer. Third, you need to search an attorney that best suits your pocket.

Ask yourself these important questions — and make sure you answer them truly. It is most important to get an experienced healthcare lawyer and not be too concerned with the best price. What you save on price, you will lose in regret if your attorney is not up to the challenge.  Kenneth Joel Haber has experience that other attorneys just dream about. He is a Fmr. Assistant US Attorney and also a Fmr. Senior Attorney of the Office of Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services. You are not going to easily find anyone with that experience, even if some else has those experiences and qualification. The one most positive experience will be the one most competent to handle your situation.

Here are some questions to consider before agreeing to hire any healthcare or Medicare lawyer.

• Is the attorney a regular, generalized defense attorney with an occasional healthcare matter or does he have focused experience in healthcare law? Does he have in-depth experience from decades of involvement?
• Does he know the regulatory structure that your program is operating in?

You must find the lawyer who is the most competent with understanding of your needs.
Don't Settle for Less than the Best. Contact an experienced healthcare fraud attorney at the law offices of Kenneth Joel Haber, Fmr. Assistant U.S. Attorney; Fmr. Senior Attorney OIG

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What You Need To About A Compliance Attorney Before Hiring One?

A lawyer or attorney is a professional that every business has a need for, eventually. Every business has an eventual need for either a litigation or transactional attorney or both. However, according to a new trend, businesses are now hiring or retaining compliance attorneys. A compliance attorney does not necessarily argue in a courtroom or work out negotiation deals. However, a compliance attorney, lawyer brings legal understanding and requirements into business management, human resources and risk management to prevent adverse downstream legal complications and insure that your business deals are compliant with the requirements of the law.

If you are looking to hire or retain a compliance attorney, you need to know the following:

• A primary purpose of a healthcare compliance attorney is to ensure that company’s ethics and compliance program are in accordance with the government healthcare policies, such as those established by OIG or CMS requirements or otherwise created by DOJ issues and policies.

• To develop and apply internal controls that will help businesses to protect against legal risk, which involve compliance policies and procedures.A compliance attorney also implements and manages training as to compliance issues and processes.

• The most important responsibility of a compliance attorney is to assist senior management and human resource department to analyze and avoid compliance violations, and in case of compliance violations, respond to them.

• He/she can provided legal support in investigations and audits regarding compliance.

• His/her responsibilities also include drafting in-house documents for advising employees about the legal and regulatory issues. These issues can range from vendors, projects, to sales and marketing.

• Other than a degree in law, a compliance attorney needs to understand the subject matter which is involved in the compliance issues. A knowledge of the requirements of a combination of what appears to be mutually independent realms helps corporations and enterprises to conduct business in compliance, with governmental and contractual obligations.

• A compliance attorney can significantly reduce an organization’s cost of hiring litigation and transactional attorneys, since his/her work is to safeguard and anticipate and avoid the potential legal implications that arise from non-compliance.

• You can hire or retain a compliance attorney just out of Law College; however, you get what you pay for. The more experience that the compliance attorney has, then the more protection that you are buying.

Many big businesses are hiring or retaining compliance attorneys to safeguard them against compliance violation. However, it is a relatively new field. It is strongly suggested that you retain experienced counsel.

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How to Choose the Right Attorney for Medicare Fraud Defense

In the present day America, billions of dollars of taxpayer’s money is engulfed by the health care frauds.This significant loss has stimulated government to discover and eradicate the health care frauds; hundreds of millions of dollars is devoted to this purpose. However, there is a downside, too, since there are many innocent healthcare professionals who are subjected to enquiry repeatedly. At this time, Medicare fraud defense attorney comes to the rescue, who is trained to defend them optimally.

However, to hire an expert Medicare fraud attorney is not task, as the attorney will have to negotiate with the government’s representative, who will be aggressive in their approach. If you want to hire a lawyer, make sure you go the following steps, which will help you to understand what you need to look for in an attorney.

(1) A comprehensive knowledge of Medicare law

Every attorney has a set of skill. However, a lawyer with generic skill set and limited knowledge of healthcare law does not fit the bill for being an effective health care lawyer.Many healthcare fraud cases results from the honest mistakes, which leads to criminal liability. There is a fine line between those, and it is the decisive factor. It is important to learn about the past negotiating experience with FBI and other government’s prosecutors.

(2) Enough experience with government related investigations

There is a small pool of legal professionals, either governments or otherwise, who operate within in this specialization, repeatedly. Therefore, attorneys from this field keep on running into the same team, and this experience is crucial for a Medicare fraud attorney. The experience helps to anticipate the next step, which may result into better strategy, understanding the moves of the government officials.

(3) Track record

It is the common element that you have to inquire about, irrespective of the type of case. However, you have to focus on the experience on the niche, since even an impeccable track record in other types of cases, will not proved to be a great determinant of attorney’s ability.

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Types of False Claims One Can Make and How Lawyers Help

,also known as Lincoln Law, holds person or companies liable to irregularities or frauds against the government. Under this law, private citizens can file a lawsuit against individuals and businesses on the behalf of the federal government.

The law came into existence during the Civil War. Now days, under this law, whistleblower lawsuits are filed and whistleblowers, if allegations is proved true, can receive compensation.
The most common types of False Claims that one can make are: 

• False Certification Claims

These claims occur when a person or entity knowingly submits forged and fraudulent claim to get payment from the government. Under this claim, the most common example is of a doctor where he or she submits an inflated bill or fake bill to the government for services provided under Medicare.

• Mischarge and Overcharge Claims

These claims occur when a person or entity knowingly submits forged and fraudulent claim to get payment from the government. Under this claim, the most common example is of a doctor where he or she submits aninflated bill or fake bill to the government for services provided under Medicare.

• Conspiracy Claims

It occurs when individual or companies work in tandem to violate the False Claims Act. The conspiracy claim usually occurs when a general contractor knows that subcontractors, it has employed, are violating terms set under federal contract. In such cases, both types of contractors are liable for conspiracy.

• Reverse False Claims

In such claims, individuals or businesses knowingly conceals or withhold information from the government about the overpayment it had been receiving. A typical reverse false claim involve a hospital that has been obtaining Medicare payments, which sometimes can result into overpayment, and to avoid refund to the government, it presents a forged cost report.

The role of lawyers

The False Claims Act has many complex rules, which are incomprehensible to untrained minds. It is necessary that you hire a false claims act attorney before filing a complaint.

Moreover, a disclosure statement is required to be submitted to the Justice Department, confidentially. An improperly drafted disclosure statement can lead to dismissal of the complaint.

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Get Legal Help in Matters of Healthcare Fraud from a Healthcare Attorney

Medical practice is one of the noblest occupations. People always think high of the doctor who saves their life. However, some doctors consider it acceptable to involve in fraudulent practices, especially the ones who receive aid from the government to provide medical services to the citizens. They use to opt for the false claims. 

Billing for a non-existing patient, billing for non-performed treatment, billing for the unnecessary medical devices and multiple billings for the same treatment are common to see. 

Trouble may arise anytime

Government has taken strict measures to stop these false practices. However, sometimes doctors and healthcare providers who have not done any fraudulent act fall under the suspicious when they make a mistake. If the Medicaid or Medicare finds any fault in the records, you as a doctor will have to face a lot of trouble even when that fault was not intentional.

Stay safe legally

Due to these reasons, the health care lawyers are present to assist you. You can choose a firm, which has a history of defending the doctors accused for healthcare fraud. The attorney for the healthcare practices can save you from the false claim act. You cannot earn back the reputation once lost. It is good to only hire a firm which has experienced healthcare lawyers, attorneys who are eligible to handle the false claim act.

Get help from the reputed firms

There are firms out there which have years of experience in the healthcare cases. You can find a firm, which has assisted the physicians and healthcare entities for all types of healthcare fraud cases. Not every firm is eligible enough to handle the complications of the health care cases. You should only retain the lawyers who are knowledge about the field and have the credentials to prove it. Kenneth Haber at www.haberslaw.com is both a former Senior Attorney of the Office of Inspector General- HHS and a former Assistant US Attorney. 

You cannot go on and risk everything to a novice or to an attorney who does not have any knowledge about the Medicare claims and healthcare billing and coding. So choose the firm smartly.

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Steps to Find a Good False Claims Lawyer

Are you misprescribed or over prescribed by a doctor? Have you observed incompetent and/or negligent practice of medicine by a healthcare professional? Did you notice the use of illegal narcotics/substances by a physician, faking or making wrong entries in any patient chart by a doctor? Didn’t the chemist give you an invoice for your purchase?

If your answer to any of the above-mentioned questions is ‘yes’, it's important to have the right medical compliance attorney on your side. A healthcare compliance lawyer will help you sue and receive compensation from the responsible doctor or medical center.

Below are a few steps to find a good false claims attorney–

1. Create a list of local false claims attorneys –When creating your list; include the lawyers’ name, phone number, email address, and website address. You can find nearby attorneys by:

• Scanning through the internet.
• Visiting your local or state bar association’s website.

2. Get referrals from friends, family members, or close relatives for reputable medical fraud attorneys.
3. Review each compliance attorney’s website. You can narrow your list further by meticulously reviewing the website of each lawyer on your list. Some things that must look for include:

• Lawyers’ background information
• Lawyers’ expertise and experience
• Lawyers’ educational background and work history

4. Prepare to ask about the lawyer’s expertise and experience. Some important questions you should ask include:

What is your strategy for my case?

5. Think about whether or not you are comfortable with the lawyer. It is important to have a good relationship with your lawyer so that you can lay all your cards on the table. If you're not comfortable, or you're bothered your lawyer is less involved in representing your interests and more interested in earning a ton of money, don't work with that attorney.

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How to spot and stop healthcare fraud?

Trillions of dollars are released for various health and medicare schemes every year. These schemes primarily include health insurance and various plans under which government aids the needy through discounted/free healthcare facilities. The most common instance of healthcare fraud is falsified insurance claim. Another type of healthcare fraud is practiced by service providers, as hospitals, doctors, physicians, chemists, and pharma and insurance companies. They provide unjust treatment/services to patients and medicare beneficiaries.

How to Spot These Frauds?

• Before enrolling for a health insurance scheme, read through all the T&C, and speak to the agent/representative of the company to understand the scheme.
• Be aware of policies and regulations set by state authorities and federal government. 
• Check if the policy that you are registering for is government approved. (However, this could be a tricky task. So, you can consider checking the reviews of the insurance program on the internet.)
• Stay attentive when seeing your doctor/hospital.
• Make sure you are getting the right treatments/tests.
• Take invoice for all your treatments/tests/medications.

Keeping these points in your consideration will help you spot the irregularities in the healthcare sector.

How to Stop Healthcare Fraud?

• Once you notice some irregularity, you can consult to a CMS lawyer.
• Discuss your concern with the attorney, and understand if your case is really a case of healthcare fraud.
• Register your complaint and file the case with the help of your False Claims Act attorney.
• False Claims Act is a litigation tool, presented by the federal government that enables you to sue the fraudster on behalf of the government. 

If your charges are proved, you will receive the compensation (certain percentage of recovered money) from the government. Your False Claims Act lawyer will help throughout the proceedings until the responsible are held and fined. These lawyers help you stop of the instances of fraud in the healthcare sector.

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