Health Care Fraud by Public Hospitals as Corporate White-Collar Crime: A Convenience Perspective

By: Petter Gottschalk1

Abstract
In the United States, more than ten percent of all annual health care fraud
recoveries that amount to several hundred million dollars annually come
from hospital fraud. Healthcare fraud is a pervasive and significant form of
fraud perpetrated against federal and state governments. Fraud by public
hospitals is white-collar crime to benefit the organization, which is labelled
corporate crime or organizational offending. This research applies the theory
of convenience to explain health care fraud by public hospitals. As suggested
by convenience theory, we find financial motives for illegal gain,
organizational opportunity to commit and conceal crime, as well as personal
willingness for deviant behavior. A case study of a public hospital in Norway
is presented, where a computer system for reimbursement was manipulated.

Keywords: Health care fraud, public hospitals, computer system,
convenience theory, case study.