the nature and frequency of medicare/medicaid fraud and neutralization techniques among speech,occupational, and physical therapists

ABSTRACT

The current study examines the nature and frequency of Medicare/Medicaid fraud and the techniques of neutralization utilized by a purposeful sample of speech, occupational, and physical therapists working within the context of hospitals, nursing homes, and with home health agencies, in a southern state. Participant observations, surveys, and in-depth interviews were utilized to obtain data for this study. We identified two main fraudulent practices, cutting sessions short while charging for the entire session and charging individual session rates for group therapy sessions. We also identified three techniques of neutralization utilized by the therapists in our study, including: (1) everyone else does it, (2) denial of responsibility, and (3) denial of injury. The implications of our findings are discussed.