CONSIDERED
A CAREER AS AN FBI INTELLIGENCE ANALYST?
Here’s What It’s Like: Up Close and Personal
04/01/05
$100 billion—with
a “b.” That’s how much health care fraud costs our
country every year, according to conservative estimates. Who picks
up the tab? Our government (a major victim). Our nation’s businesses
(especially insurance companies). And you and I, every time we get
medical care. And sometimes, the culprits behind these scams are those
you’d least expect: doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and other trusted
medical professionals. So it’s no wonder Paula, a Health Care
Fraud Intelligence Analyst at the FBI for nearly six years, finds special
joy in helping to unravel crooks’ elaborate schemes.
Q. Paula,
can you tell us about some of the interesting cases you’ve worked
on?
Paula: Sure, one of the more interesting cases involved a nationwide
scheme in which outpatient surgery centers recruited well-insured people
to undergo elective surgeries covered by their policies in exchange for kickbacks.
The surgeries were unwarranted and unnecessary and generated bogus insurance
claims that turned a tidy profit for the providers. We’ve since worked
with private industry to develop a national database of suspicious outpatient
centers. The surgery scheme was highlighted on national television with a lot
of input from the FBI.
Q. What’s
a typical workday like?
Paula: I write intelligence assessments to determine whether cases
may be regional or national in scope and support field investigations with
several types of specialized data analysis. And I’m often asked to speak
at national conferences for FBI managers and private insurers and health care
programs on fraud intelligence matters. I’m never bored and I can never
predict what’s next.
Q. Have you
traveled overseas on cases?
Paula: Yes. I taught a health care fraud data mining class at Scotland
Yard in England last year. They were a great audience and London is my new
favorite city.
Q. What do
you like most about the job?
Paula: Each project I work on is more exciting than the last. It’s
very rewarding to use my health care background in exercise physiology in my
position as a health care fraud intelligence analyst. I love to get up for
work every day and I can see myself working here the rest of my life. I know
I’m working for the right side.
Q. Do you
have any advice for prospective FBI recruits?
Paula: Follow your heart. If you are motivated by a desire to do what
is right, then the Bureau is a wonderful home. We’re all about putting
the bad guys in jail. Everything I do here is reduced to that, so I sleep well
at night!
Interested
in applying? Go to fbijobs.com.
And read more about the FBI’s Directorate
of Intelligence