Medical Billing Fraud & abuse

Fraud, waste and abuse prevention & training


If you identify potential fraud, waste, or abuse, please report it to us immediately so that we can investigate and respond appropriately. Please see the How to Contact Us section of this guide for contact information. Please note UnitedHealthcare expressly prohibits retaliation if a report is made in good faith.


• Fraud Is a false statement, made or submitted by an individual or entity, who knows that the statement is false, and knows that the false statement could result in some otherwise unauthorized benefit to the individual or entity. These false statements could be verbal or written.


• Waste Generally means over-use of services, or other practices that result in unnecessary costs. In most cases, waste is not considered caused by reckless actions but rather the misuse of resources.


• Abuse Generally refers to provider, contractor or member practices that are inconsistent with sound business, financial or medical practices; and that cause unnecessary costs to the health care system.


Effective January 1, 2009, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) modified certain rules and regulations of the Medicare Advantage and the Part D programs. The rules state that a compliance plan must include training, education, and effective lines of communication between the compliance officer and the organization’s employees, managers, directors, as well as first tier, downstream and related entities. This change clarified that plan sponsors, such as UnitedHealthcare, need to apply these training and communication requirements to all entities they are partnering with to provide services in Medicare Advantage or Part D programs.

As a contracted provider for UnitedHealthcare’s Medicare Advantage programs, you are considered a first tier or downstream entity and are subject to this CMS requirement. It is our responsibility to ensure that your organization is provided with appropriate training for your employees and applicable subcontractors. To facilitate that, we will be providing your organization with training materials, which will be made available on UnitedHealthcareOnline.com.

Annually, your organization must administer the training materials to your employees and applicable subcontractors. This annual training can be done using our materials or you may use your existing training program and/or materials provided by another health plan as long as that training meets the CMS requirements. Please maintain records of the training (i.e. sign-in sheets, materials, etc). Documentation of the training may be requested by UnitedHealthcare, CMS, or an agent of CMS to verify the training was completed.