The Air Force says it is taking several steps to combat fraud in the Federal Employees Compensation Act program, including creation of a new task force under its Directorate for Civilian Workforce Integration.
That office is teaming with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations and the Department of Labor IG, using techniques including file and medical documentation reviews, surveillance, and interviewing neighbors and co-workers. A number of suspicious cases have been identified and are under evaluation, the Air Force said.
That follows the ongoing shift of handing workers’ comp claims from base-level civilian personnel to the Air Force Personnel Center, which now handles half of such cases and will handle all of them by the end of 2012.
The Air Force said it pays $135 million in injury claims annually but a 2008 audit estimated that up to 10 percent of claims are fraudulent. Types of fraud by employees include working and receiving unreported income while on compensation, engaging in activities on personal time that supposedly are out of the question, and selling medications received through FECA. In addition, fraud occurs when medical providers bill the government for services not performed and when physicians knowingly exaggerate a patient’s limitations, it said.
