Among its other provisions, the Affordable Care Act gave federal authorities the authority and funding to employ sophisticated fraud-detection technology in the fight against phony Medicare billing. These powerful computer systems comb through millions of claims each day, seeking redundancies, inconsistencies, or other red flags in a process akin to those used by credit card companies to detect identity theft. While some anti-fraud advocates praise the new techniques as a step toward better preventative enforcement, others caution that even the most advanced technology cannot completely replace old-fashioned legwork. To that end, the government’s Medicare Strike Forces have stepped up their investigative presence on the ground, quadrupling in number since 2009.

Read or listen to the entire story, “Health Law Gives Medicare Fraud Fighters New Weapons”