DentaQuest's Nicholas Messuri Elected NHCAA Board Chair

SAN DIEGO, Nov. 17, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association (NHCAA) today announced that Nicholas J. Messuri, Esq., Vice President and Deputy General Counsel for Fraud Prevention & Recovery at DentaQuest and Delta Dental of Massachusetts has been elected as the new Chair of its Board of Directors. Messuri succeeds Katherine M. Leff, Director of the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) at CareSource.

Messuri joined DentaQuest in early 2015 and is responsible for overseeing a team of investigators and managing a national anti-fraud and abuse program for Medicaid, Medicare Advantage and Commercial membership.

"DentaQuest supports NHCAA's mission of fighting health care fraud and is proud that Nick has been elected to serve NHCAA and its membership as Board Chair. His extensive experience in identifying and stopping health care fraud and his legal expertise will serve the association well in the coming year," said Steve Pollock, DentaQuest President and Chief Executive Officer.

Prior to taking on his new role at DentaQuest, Messuri was Director of Fraud Prevention & Recovery at Tufts Health Plan in Massachusetts where his Special Investigations Unit recovered and saved in excess of $65 million dollars. While at Tufts, he was invited by the Department of Justice to represent private health plans at the groundbreaking 2010 Health Care Fraud Summit held in Bethesda, Maryland.

Messuri began his 29 year legal career with the Middlesex County District Attorney's Office and has more than seventeen years of experience as a criminal prosecutor, including ten years as Chief of the Massachusetts Attorney General's Medicaid Fraud Division and Chief of the Business & Labor Crimes Bureau. As the Commonwealth's chief health care fraud prosecutor his division recovered more than $70 million dollars in restitution and obtained civil judgments and convictions against providers for a variety of health care fraud and abuse schemes including: billing for services not rendered, billing for medically unnecessary services, up-coding services, providing substandard care and causing false health care claims. 

Other leadership roles Messuri has previously held include President of the National Association of Medicaid Fraud Control Units (NAMFCU) and Chair of the National Association of Attorneys General Multi-State False Claims Act Committee. He has testified before the United States Senate Finance Committee on improving Medicaid fraud control initiatives and is a frequent health care fraud enforcement writer and speaker for the American Health Lawyers Association. In 2012, Messuri was appointed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) as the first Co-Chair of the National Healthcare Fraud Prevention Partnership's Information Sharing Committee.

"Nick has served NHCAA for several years, sharing his wide-ranging experience and keen legal insights and we are delighted that he will be leading NHCAA as we enter our fourth decade of protecting and serving the public interest against health care fraud," said Louis Saccoccio, Chief Executive Officer of NHCAA. "Nick has already made a tremendous contribution to the association with his pragmatic and innovative thinking together with his ability to speak plainly about his vision for effectively fighting health care fraud. NHCAA and its members are proud to have Nick Messuri serve as Chair of the 2016 Board of Directors."

Looking ahead to his year as Chair, Messuri said, "I am honored to have the opportunity to lead NHCAA as it continues in pursuit of its mission. For more than 30 years, NHCAA has been the leader in healthcare anti-fraud training and a tireless proponent of the power of collaboration and of sharing information to combat fraud. I look forward to continuing NHCAA's well-established tradition as a private-public partnership and advancing efforts that will protect patients from the very real harm caused by health care fraud."

Messuri's election was announced in conjunction with NHCAA's Annual Training Conference in San Diego, California. The Annual Training Conference is the premier event recognized as the nation's leading health care anti-fraud forum for approximately 1,400 public- and private-sector health care anti-fraud professionals.

Founded in 1985, the National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association is the leading national organization focused exclusively on the fight against health care fraud. Our members comprise more than 100 private health insurers and those public-sector law enforcement and regulatory agencies having jurisdiction over health care fraud committed against both private payers and public programs.

SOURCE National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association

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