Here’s an unexpected bit of good news:

According to this article from USA Today, the Obama administration has sharply ramped up prosecutions for Medicare fraud and related crimes, including scams perpetrated against private insurers. This was partly the result of the health insurance reform law, which authorized hiring more teams of investigators.

According to data assembled by researchers at Syracuse University, last year alone these expanded efforts led to recovering $4 billion — a record — from crooks. For comparison, officials had projected that reducing waste, fraud, and abuse would save a total of just $4.9 billion over the next ten years.

Moreover, in just the first eight months of 2011, prosecutions have already far exceeded the total for all of 2010.

Besides recovering tons of money from thieves, these efforts may very well make others think twice about scamming insurance funds to start with.

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