When Medicare auditors decide it's time for a check-up.

very practice treating Medicare patients is subject to an audit by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (cms), formerly known as the Health Care Financing Administration (hcfa). In the year  the federal government won or negotiated more than $. billion in judgments, settlements, and administrative impositions in health care fraud cases and proceedings; federal prosecutors filed  criminal indictments in health care fraud cases, up % from ; a total of  defendants were convicted of health care fraud–related crimes; there were , civil matters pending and  civil cases filed; and ,  i n d ividuals and entities we re excluded from participating in the Medicare and Medicaid programs. 