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Healthcare Fraud

18 U.S. Code § 1347 - Health Care Fraud

If you or someone you know is being charged with healthcare fraud, a successful prosecution will result in excessive fines and up to 10 years in prison. Our goal at Hedding Law Firm is to have a successful defense and get you the best possible results!  

Our federal criminal defense lawyers have a combined 75 years of experience, and we are confident that we can help you in your healthcare fraud case.

Healthcare fraud is a white-collar crime committed by consumers or providers, where one intentionally falsifies information to receive healthcare benefits or money from healthcare insurance providers.

Ways a consumer can be charged for federal healthcare fraud are: filing false claims for services and medications; forging bills and/or receipts; altering bills and/or receipts; and using someone else's insurance.

Ways a provider can be charged with healthcare fraud are: billing for services never performed; misrepresenting surgeries actually performed or misrepresenting the necessity of surgeries, tests, and procedures; billing patients more than the co-pay amount; billing for non-covered service as covered service.

Right now health care fraud is running rampant, and the authorities are on top of it.  They're arresting doctors, lawyers, patients — they're arresting anybody who they deem is cheating the government out of money related to health care benefits.

The government spends millions of dollars every month related to health care costs, and anybody they believe is trying to cheat the government will be punished.

Remember, this is a source of income for both the state and federal governments.  So, if somebody is involved in a healthcare fraud scheme in Los Angeles or anywhere in the country, the authorities are going to be on top of it.

I know the feds have a special healthcare fraud branch in the Long Beach area covering Los Angeles.  And of course, the state has all kinds of different investigative agencies related to health care fraud.  They also have prosecutors who are specially trained and assigned to cases involving health care fraud.

Seeking a Lesser Charge or Case Dismissal

So, the first thing that I've learned in doing a lot of health care fraud cases — and I've been doing this for twenty-five years — is that usually when it comes to a health care fraud case in Los Angeles, there's more than meets the eye.  In other words, the authorities don't always have all of the right information.

Sometimes they have too little information and they don't realize what's really going on and it's my job as a criminal defense attorney to point that out to the prosecutors, who are the lawyers like me on the other side of a health care fraud case, or it's my job to litigate the case, do damage to the prosecution's case and either get the case dismissed or get it mitigated down to something lesser.  It really just depends on the facts and circumstances surrounding the case.

Sometimes the authorities don't know everything there is to know about a health care fraud case and there's more to learn and there's more information that is going to be damaging and harmful to a criminal defendant, and obviously, we're going to want to take precautions to deal with that as soon as possible.

Just burying your head in the sand and hoping for the best is not the best strategy when you're charged with health care fraud in Los Angeles.

The strategy should be that you're going to get an attorney who has experience in this area, who knows the court where your case is pending and knows what it's going to take to either win the case — if that's the best strategy — or mitigate it down to something lesser, preserve your rights, your freedom and your reputation.

Determining Best Strategy Against Healthcare Fraud Charges

However, the first thing you want to do is meet with the attorney and decide what your strategy is.  It's not the same strategy in every health care fraud case.  You don't just do the same thing.  It's not a cookie-cutter approach.  It's not a do-it-yourself project.

It's a situation where you get an attorney who knows what they're doing.  You sit down with that attorney.  You give him all the details related to your health care fraud case and you let them know what actually happened.  Then the attorney will be in a solid position to figure out how to best defend you.

You putting a spin on the case, not giving all the details, leaving out crucial facts in hopes that that's going to somehow help you, is just a foolish move.  Because trust me, those details are out there.

The police and prosecutors are going to figure them out by talking to witnesses and doing their own investigation, and if your attorney has that information from the beginning, they will be able to combat and defuse some of the arguments that the police and prosecutors are going to come up with and they'll be able to best defend you.

So, pick up the phone.  Make the call.  Let's sit down.  Let's get a strategy together and handle your case the right way from the beginning so that you end up with the best possible result. If you or someone you know is facing healthcare fraud charges, contact us immediately so we can get started on your criminal case.

Also See:
Will I Go to Jail If Charged with Medicare Fraud?

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