posted
Medicare Fraud Medicare’s annual anti-fraud budget is $465 billion. (Miami Herald, August 11, 2008) Medicare and Medicaid made an estimated $23.7 billion in improper payments in 2007. These included $10.8 billion for Medicare and $12.9 billion for Medicaid. Medicare’s fee-for-service reduced its error rate from 4.4 percent to 3.9 percent. (U.S. Office of Management and Budget, 2008) Medicare and Medicaid lose an estimated $60 billion or more annually to fraud, including $2.5 billion in South Florida. (Miami Herald, August 11, 2008) Every $1 the U.S. government invests in combating Medicare and Medicaid fraud saves $1.55. (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, 2009) Medicare spends less than 0.2 cents of every $1 of its $456 billion annual budget combating fraud, waste and abuse. (Miami Herald, August 11, 2008) Medicare paid dead physicians 478,500 claims totaling up to $92 million from 2000 to 2007. These claims included 16,548 to 18,240 deceased physicians. (U.S. Senate Permanent Committee on Investigations, 2008) Nearly one of three claims (29 percent) Medicare paid for durable medical equipment was erroneous in FY 2006. (Inspector General report, Department of Health and Human Services, August 2008) Medicare and private health insurers pay up to $16 billion a year for needless imaging tests ordered by doctors. (American College of Radiology, 2004)
Other Medicare Stats
Medicare paid more than $1 billion in questionable claims for 18 categories of medical supplies for patients that don’t appear to need. The study covered claims between January 2001 and December 2006. The claims included walkers for patients with purported sinus congestion, paraplegia or shoulder injuries. Hundreds of thousands of claims were made for diabetes-related glucose test strips for patients with purported breathing problems, bubonic plague, leprosy or sexual impotence. (U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, 2008)
-------------------- Wise men learn more from fools than fools from the wise. Posts: 3827 | From: beautiful California | Registered: Sep 2008
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posted
Glass that is the only thing that can be done. I am afraid to say it but we are turning into a society of greed and corruption.
I can see pretty soon our parking lot meter revenue will be sold to the highest bidder.
-------------------- Wise men learn more from fools than fools from the wise. Posts: 3827 | From: beautiful California | Registered: Sep 2008
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quote:Originally posted by glassman: try taking it away from people and see what happens...
how about we clean it up and put people who abuse it in jail after we BK them?
How about we create a system that works before committing trillions of dollars to it.
that's sort of like waiting to have kids until the world is perfect for them. ain't gonna happen.
the war on drugs? the war on terror? nobody even expects to win them, they just call them wars so they can spend whatever they want.
it's not as tho i am looking forward to this, it's just inevitable.
it's been inevitable for a long time. and don't forget, it's not the poor people that did it. it's the doctors that did it. they've always had the reins.
doctors used to get paid if they could, now they live in their own zip code.
that's the failure of the "conservative movement", they want to blame everybody else instead of taking responsibility which BTW is supposed to be one of the fundamentals of conservatism.
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise. Posts: 36378 | From: USA | Registered: Sep 2003
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