Feds Ignored Medicare Fraud Warnings For Years

Isn't this fun stuff to read. One can only imagine the sharks lining up to get their portion from any new health care reform. Medicare fraud is thought to be in the area of $60 Billion a year. Despite repeated warnings in some cases, the Feds managed to ignore it for years. Yes, please do take more of our money only to manage it as if it wasn't your own. Oh, that's right! It isn't. Which has proved to be one of the biggest problems facing government as long as it has existed.

America should be outraged over this. Instead, many Americans will simply gloss over it as business as usual when it comes to the Federal Government. Because they're looking after us, right?  What a sad joke.

MIAMI (AP) -- For three years, the federal agency in charge of preventing Medicare fraud repeatedly ignored internal watchdog warnings about swindlers stealing millions of dollars by scamming several programs, documents show.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services received roughly 30 warnings from inspectors over three years during the Bush and Obama administrations but didn't respond to half of them, even after repeated letters, according to records provided to The Associated Press by U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley's office.

A July 2008 warning said organized crime had infiltrated the system and was costing more than $1 million dollars for each phony Medicare provider license the crooks obtained. The letter got no response, Grassley said.

Comments

[PA]

If its acknowledged, then they'd have to actually do something about it, which would be too much like work, therefore they bury it.

[Frank G]

Zero et al, always acknowledge all teh savings from stopping fraud and abuse, in fact they usually tally it against their bloated program proposal costs. If it was so easy to stop, why haven't they? Lying F*&kers is teh answer. They have no intention of going to the actual effort of stopping it. My answer on Healthcare? Stop the fraud and abuse first, then we can discuss

[unseen]

who would have thought that Obama would be bush's third term

[joyMc]

I can only speak from a home health prespective because that is my field. I have been told that about once every 10 years Medicare cleans out the woods. They slow down or hold back reimbursement, dragging out the process so that a large percent of small agencies, and DME companies die off for lack of revenue. The last time they did it, some of the largest players died off as well due to no profit margin. Over half the home health related businesses in the country closed. There were many areas without services at all. Looks like it is coming time for the process to happen again with big projected cuts for 2010. What is left after the blood bath is a few survivers, usually larger operations with cash reserves and multiple payer sources. This gives Medicare fewer companies to keep track of and deal with for a while. Then the industry recovers and more and more agencies spring up. A certain percent of these will be crooks. This is a hell of a crappy way to oversee an industry subsector. Welcome to government run healthcare.