NCJ Number
157653
Journal
Fordham Law Review Volume: 63 Issue: 2 Dated: (November 1994) Pages: 383-528
Date Published
1994
Length
146 pages
Annotation
The litigation of white collar crime, including health care fraud, is different from the litigation of most criminal cases, although evidence in white collar criminal cases consists of evidence typically seen in civil cases: documents, expert witnesses, summary witnesses and charts, computer-generated data, and explanations of complex financial transactions.
Abstract
With the increasing complexity of health care fraud cases, evidentiary issues have become more intricate. Current prosecutions of health care providers are complex because they involve fraud prosecuted with complex statutes. Evidentiary and procedural issues focus on the propriety of government agents who testify as expert witnesses, the use of influential litigation tools such as summaries and summary witnesses, and computer- generated evidence. Courts tend to blend procedural and evidentiary doctrines usually kept separate in civil and criminal cases. Summaries, extrinsic act evidence, and privileges exemplify this blending. Privilege issues arise routinely in health care fraud prosecutions, but reported cases reveal they are almost uniformly decided against defendants. The blurring of civil and criminal law is significant because it raises the question of whether the distinction between the two arenas of justice truly exists or is a creation of convenience that needs rethinking. Case law related to health care fraud prosecutions is cited in appendixes. 574 footnotes