Report details billions lost in Medicare fraud

[babylonsister]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/15/AR2009111502488.html

Report details billions lost in Medicare fraud

By Hope Yen
Monday, November 16, 2009


The government paid more than $47 billion in questionable Medicare claims including medical treatment showing little relation to a patient's condition, wasting taxpayer money at a rate nearly three times that of the previous year.

Excerpts of a new federal report, obtained by the Associated Press, show a dramatic increase in improper payments in the $440 billion Medicare program that government auditors have cited as a high risk for fraud and waste for 20 years.

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In recent years, the suspect claims have included Medicare prescriptions from doctors who were dead, and requests for payment for medical supplies such as blood glucose strips for sexual impotence and diabetic shoes for leg amputees. Patients, many of them new citizens who barely speak English, are sometimes recruited by brokers who go door to door offering hundreds of dollars for use of their Medicare numbers.

Obama is expected to announce new initiatives this week to help crack down on Medicare fraud, including a government-wide Web site aimed at providing a fuller account of health-care spending and improper payments made by various agencies. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services also will launch an interactive Web site next month that will allow users to track Medicare payment information.

According to the report, the Bush administration from 2005 to 2008 reported improper payments of about 4 percent in the fee-for-service program, or about $17 billion total in 2008. Government officials at the time, however, typically did not consider a Medicare payment improper if the medical documentation was incomplete or a doctor's signature was illegible.

[RC]

1. Consider the source.

And which States have the worse record for fraud. Starting with Florida.