To protect older Americans and the integrity of publicly funded health care for future generations. You can't do this job alone. And we don't expect you to. That's why our goal is to make your work easier and more effective - and to encourage all health care providers to voluntarily strengthen their internal controls. Remember, when determining sanctions, penalties and exclusions, the Inspector General takes into account whether you have an effective compliance program in place.
More voluntary guidelines are in the works for HMOs and medical equipment providers.
But we both know that implementing a compliance program is no guarantee of success. I started my remarks this morning by talking about movies. And as I suggested, movies are usually about individual heroes. My point is, we can't fight fraud and abuse solely on the macro level - with tougher laws and more oversight. We have to wage this battle on the micro level too.