House panel ready to study MU abuse
In the wake of an indictment of a hospital executive for false Meaningful Use (MU) attestation, the House Energy and Commerce Committee plans to investigate how the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) awards funds to hospitals that attest to MU and what guidelines have been issued to prevent fraud and abuse of the program, the Dallas Morning News' "Watchdog Blog" reports.
Joe White, CFO of the now-closed Shelby Regional Medical Center in Texas, was indicted for allegedly defrauding the federal government of nearly $800,000 in MU payments.
Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas) first questioned the MU program last August but the investigation of White was still in progress. Now that White has been indicted, Burgess said the committee now will seek "formal answers to the bigger questions." The committee seeks to find out whether there are more cases of MU fraud and whether there are new protocols in place to prevent such abuse.Burgess said he will go to the Government Accountability Office for answers if HHS does not cooperate with the inquiry, according to the Watchdog Blog.
Editor
Editor Beth earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and master’s in health communication. She has worked in hospital, academic and publishing settings over the past 20 years. Beth joined TriMed in 2005, as editor of CMIO and Clinical Innovation + Technology. When not covering all things related to health IT, she spends time with her husband and three children.