The Nevada crime of false billing is also punishable by federal law.
A person who defrauds a Medicare or other governmental healthcare insurer or provider can be charged with a federal crime. Federal healthcare fraud has longer prison sentences and fines than charges under Nevada law.
Sentences for federal healthcare fraud depend on whether the result of the fraud is bodily harm:
If the fraud does not result in serious bodily harm, the penalty can include up to 10 years in a federal prison, which is located outside the state of Nevada;
If any serious bodily injury results from the fraud, the prison time increases to a period up to 20 years long.
If a person dies from healthcare fraud activities, the penalty includes life in prison.
In each of these cases, the person convicted of healthcare and billing fraud may also have to pay fines.
False billing as a federal crime has a strict liability standard of proof. This means that the government does not need to prove that you intended to defraud anyone with your billing practices. Instead, there is an assumption that false billing was intended to defraud the insurer.