The national report health care fraud week holiday is the second week of August and was first celebrated in August of 2017. The purpose of this national holiday is to bring awareness of widespread health care fraud and equip the public with the tools to report it. In fact, ten percent of health care spending is lost to fraud. That adds up to $300 billion a year.

After working for over 15 years in the Department of Justice (DOJ) whistleblower reward office in Washington, D.C., attorney Joel D. Hesch, Esq. founded the National report health care fraud week. Joel created an official website for the report health care fraud, and in particular Medicare or Medicaid fraud, with an eye towards making it simple for a person to report Medicare fraud either to DOJ for a reward to directly to the agency overseeing the Medicare program, or to report fraud against private health care insurance directly to the company or the FBI. With only a few clicks, a person that has firsthand knowledge of health care fraud can do something about it.

Because there are several ways of reporting fraud, and the methods and results are dramatically different, Mr. Hesch wrote a free e-book that more fully describes how to properly report health care fraud. The e-book lists the pros and cons of using each method. In fact, if you do not follow the process, you might not get the attention of the government or ensure that an investigation takes place.

What the public does not know is that the Department of Justice (DOJ) has a whistleblower reward program that pays significant monetary rewards for reporting Medicare fraud. But there is a formula that you must follow to be eligible for a reward. You cannot simply call a hotline or even notify CMS of the fraud to get a DOJ reward. You need to use an attorney and provide detailed evidence of the Medicare fraud. But if you have the right type of information, you can get a sizable reward. The average Medicare fraud reward is $690,000 and some rewards have exceeded $100 million. Because the reward is based on the size of the case and amount DOJ collects back, a large reward is only paid when you have direct information of widespread Medicare fraud. Typically the whistleblower worked for a large company and has inside knowledge of the Medicare fraud and specific examples.

The national report health care fraud week official website provides more details about the difference between applying for a reward under the DOJ program and reporting fraud directly to CMS. It also outlines how to report private health care insurance fraud. Simply by visiting the website you can also download a free e-book that describes the programs and methods of reporting health care fraud.

To further equip the public, Joel Hesch formed his own law firm that exclusively represents whistleblowers file for rewards for reporting Medicare and Medicaid fraud under the DOJ reward program. While at DOJ, Mr. Hesch helped recover $1.5 billion in whistleblower reward fraud cases. Joel has seen and combatted fraud first hand and knows what it takes for a whistleblower to successfully report Medicare or Medicaid fraud. Joel has also watched whistleblowers make mistake in reporting Medicare fraud that lead to no rewards or no investigation even taking place. By visiting the national report health care fraud week website at this link, you can ask Mr. Hesch to consider filing your DOJ Medicare fraud reward application.

Together, we can take a bite out of health care and in particular Medicare fraud and help preserve precious health care resources for those who really need it.