Providing healthcare is a significant and expanding element of our GDP. The costs involved are formidable and growing, particularly as the effects of the Affordable Care Act, new technology, and pharmaceuticals work through the system. Along with this is the impact of our aging population on healthcare social insurance programs, Medicare, Medicaid and Disability. This massive accretion of funding, investment, and outlays is a continuous lure for fraudsters of all kinds and focuses. Reining in the losses from fraud, waste and abuse in health care must be paramount and never flagging.
Exciting new information technology tools are coming online to add impact to the identification and cessation of the drain of dollar losses from fraud schemes and activities. Data aggregation and analysis combined with the rapid identification of emerging healthcare fraud trends allows for precision and effective law enforcement intervention and timely recovery of assets. Because healthcare delivery is dynamic, so also is the criminal activity that siphons away critical funding for these programs and systems. This warrants that public and private commitment to stemming this destructive criminal tide is essential and a sustained major priority for our Nation.