BILLIONS LOST IN MEDICARE FRAUD
Topic: Once in a Lifetime, Dept. of Health & Human Services21. August 2008 |
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The New York Times Charles Duhigg reports that the Center for Medicare Services blew $2.8 billion last year on medical equipment like wheelchairs that were fraudulently requested. The culprit is apparently sneaky equipment sellers who forge doctor’s signatures and get Medicare to pay them to provide medical equipment to people that don’t need the devices.
Duhigg’s source is a yet to be released Dept. of Health and Human Services Inspectors General report. The IG’s findings sharply contradict Center for Medicare Services claim to Congress that only $700 million was lost on fraudulent medical equipment.
For most executive branch oversight, such a scathing report might throw into jeopardy the very program being scrutinized. But since Medicare is a $466 billion (and growing) entitlement program, reform will be focused almost solely on government execution. In other words, the people who oversee durable medical equipment might have start looking for other lines of work.-MB
understandinggov.org
Hold all CMS officials accountable and clean house. The oversight of Taxpayer dollars is laughable. Medicare has been mismanaged and a mess for years. They have never taken fighting fraud seriously and have granted providers a license to steal. Congress needs to clean house now if they want change.
John W. Schilling
Author - “Undercover”
www.ethicsolutionsllc.com
comment at 22. August 2008