Medicare fraud must end - watching the 60 Minutes story now

[Politicub]

I hope congress brings the strongest penalty possible to those who defraud Medicare. And President Obama's justice department prosecutes these leaches. Cutting out even half of the fraud would fund most of the public option.

[ThatsMyBarack]

1. That crook "Tony" got off easy....

With only 12 years in the clink. :eyes:

[Politicub]

2. Hopefully they'll catch more people like him

Especially those who set up storefronts, file fraudulent claims and then open another store elsewhere.

Hiring more people to root out medicare fraud would be a great way to create some jobs in every state - seriously!

[Politicub]

4. And to add - people defraud the for pay insurers, too

So this isn't something that's unique to medicare. But it takes on a new dimension when people are stealing the tax payers money that could be used to provide coverage to more folks.

[jwirr]

3. When I was a sub at Social Services we were sent a list of professionals

who had defrauded government programs each month. We no longer covered their services.

[madrchsod]

5. medicare fraud division is active in tracking down and throwing people in prison

since it`s a federal offense any sentence is 80-85% before parole. the monetary fines will be a penalty they`ll be serving till they die.

[SharonAnn]

6. It's how Jeb Bush got started. But only his partner was convicted.

And our previous president cut federal budgets for things like that in order to pay for tax cuts for his friends.

It's all in how you audit and enforce rules.

No private company would disburse that amount of money and have so pitifully few auditors.

[Kansas Wyatt]

7. One would think....

That the government would set up a provider billing numbers, in order for anyone to bill Medicare. They need a patient number, so why wouldn't they need a provider number?

Just seems like they could issue numbers to providers or businesses, in which credentials would have to be supplied, before obtaining a billing number, much like a license. They would fill out an application, which lists the owners of the company, including Social Security numbers, etc. etc. to make it harder to defraud Medicare, make it easier to track down those who are doing so, and make it easier to flag possible frauds.

But hell, I'm not smart enough to work in the government.

[GCP]

8. They do

[A Brand New World]

9. I watched that episode too and was quite disturbed. I'm not

sure how this can be occurring. Why don't all providers of Medicare services have to apply for a provider number and verify that they are a legitimate business? All pharmacies & medical providers should be licensed by the state they are in. I understand that all bills must be paid within 15 to 20 days or whatever that figure was that was quoted but nothing should be paid to an undocumented provider (at least in my mind).