[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1843 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1843

         To provide increased penalties for health care fraud.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            October 22, 2009

Mr. Specter (for himself and Mr. Graham) introduced the following bill; 
  which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
         To provide increased penalties for health care fraud.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Strengthening Enforcement for Health 
Care Fraud Crimes Act of 2009''.

SEC. 2. HEALTH CARE FRAUD.

    Section 1347 of title 18, United States Code, is amended--
            (1) by striking ``Whoever'' and inserting the following:
    ``(a) In General.--It shall be unlawful for any person, in 
connection with the delivery of or payment for health care benefits, 
items, or services, to'';
            (2) by striking ``executes, or attempts'' and inserting 
        ``execute, or attempt'';
            (3) in subsection (a)(2), as so designated, by striking 
        ``program,'' and inserting ``program.''; and
            (4) in the matter following subsection (a)(2), as so 
        designated, by striking ``in connection with the delivery'' and 
        all that follows and inserting the following:
    ``(b) Penalties.--
            ``(1) In general.--Subject to paragraph (2), whoever 
        violates subsection (a)--
                    ``(A) shall be fined under this title, imprisoned 
                for not more than 10 years, or both;
                    ``(B) if the violation results in serious bodily 
                injury (as defined in section 1365 of this title), 
                shall be fined under this title, imprisoned for not 
                more than 20 years, or both; and
                    ``(C) if the violation results in death, shall be 
                fined under this title, imprisoned for any term of 
                years or for life, or both.
            ``(2) Mandatory minimum sentencing.--In imposing a sentence 
        under paragraph (1), if the violation of subsection (a) 
        involves a loss of not less than $100,000, the defendant shall 
        be imprisoned for not less than 6 months.''.
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