Originally published in Law360, New York (September 25, 2012, 7:57 PM ET)

The federal government's Monday warning to hospitals not to abuse their new electronic health records to charge Medicare higher rates serves as a shot across the bow, signaling providers will come under increasingly intense scrutiny over billing errors that are sometimes just honest mistakes, experts say.

In a letter to major hospital associations, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Attorney General Eric Holder warned hospitals not to use electronic health records to cheat the system and bill Medicare at higher rates than is warranted.