Million dollar fraud: detecting, investigating, and preventing large-scale hospital theft

Because hospitals often have large amounts of capital expenditures, they are particularly vulnerable to massive fraudulent schemes. Sometimes, the perpetrators are top-level executives, chief financial officers, or board members working in conjunction with outside contractors and suppliers. The losses can be devastating as witnessed by the recent uncovering of "Operation Catscam"--a large-scale x-ray scam, involving phony invoices, kickbacks, and outright theft of supplies, that operated for 14 years and bilked hospitals in New York and New Jersey out of at least $10 million. This report will detail recent incidences of massive hospital fraud: how the crimes were committed, how they were detected, the amount of loss involved, and procedures the institutions later put in place to prevent such thefts from recurring. In addition, we'll offer tips from investigative experts on how the security department can involve itself in helping to spot fraud early in the game and how to proceed with an in-house investigation.