ABSTRACT
The health care industry is the largest single industry in the US economy. Anyone involved in the health care industry can be an offender. This includes not only physicians but also pharmacists, physical therapists, health care organizations, testing laboratories, medical suppliers, and companies that manage billing and records for health care organizations. Physicians are not the only ones defrauding the health care system. In recent years, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has investigated a number of high-profile cases of massive fraud by large organizations. Health care fraud illustrates to perfection the defining characteristics of white-collar crime. All health care providers and health care organizations have legitimate access to patients and to the various government programs and private companies that provide health care insurance. The offender's specialized access to the crime target has profound implications for the problem of preventing these offenses.
