Guest Voz: Meemaw's Medical Joural reports:Medicare Fraud Continues to Skyrocket but Obama Administration Arresting Them All -- Anti-Fraud Law Coming to the Rescue!
I am always amazed by the amount of Medicare Fraud that continues to happen every year. Every time the Feds have a large bust, they say it is the largest fraud ever. In 2010, we have had four of the "Largest Medicare Fraud ever!" headlines.
March 2010 - "The largest Medicare fraud ever in the nursing home industry"
Medicare fraud by California-based nursing home company North American Health Care (NAHC), which operates 35 nursing homes in four states. NAHC may be falsifying patient records and overcharging Medicare by tens of millions of dollars each year. Indeed, a number of former NAHC employees have testified to repeated orders to alter and falsify patient records. NAHC appears to be an industry leader in "upcoding" services provided to Medicare patients and charging Medicare the highest possible rates for resident care.
July 2010 - "Brooklyn Arrests Are Part of "Largest Medicare Fraud Bust Ever"
The FBI has arrested three doctors and doctors "professional patients" in Brooklyn for allegedly submitting thousands of bogus medical claims to Medicare and Medicaid. Prosecutors said the doctors and their clinics stole more than $80 million from taxpayers. The local arrests are part of the largest Medicare fraud bust ever. Dozens of suspects accused in scams totaling $251 million were busted in five states, authorities said. In one Brooklyn office, the doctors had set up a "cash kickback room" to pay patients for allowing them to submit false bills to the government health programs. The so-called "kickback" room had a poster on the wall resembling Soviet-era propaganda, showing a woman with a finger to her lips and two messages in Russian: "Don't Gossip" and "Be on the lookout: In these days, the walls talk."
October 13, 2010 - "44 Charged in Huge Medicare Fraud Scheme" An Armenian-American crime syndicate stole the identities of doctors and thousands of patients and used them and more than a hundred spurious clinics in 25 states to bill Medicare for more than $100 million for treatments no doctor ever performed and no patient ever received, the federal authorities announced on Wednesday.
October 21, 2010 - 4 arrested in alleged $200 million Medicare fraud case
Federal agents arrested four Miami-Dade health care operators Thursday in one of the nation's biggest Medicare fraud cases, charging them with scheming to fleece $200 million from the taxpayer-funded program by billing for bogus mental health services. Lawrence S. Duran, 48, of North Miami, and his company, American Therapeutic Corp., were charged along with other employees in a conspiracy indictment. The Miami-based company's chief executive officer, Marianella Valera, 39, was also among the defendants named in the indictment.
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This fraud has been going on for years. The good news is, the Obama Administration is catching up to them and filing charges against them. Additionally, for decades, Medicare and its contractors have relied upon a largely antiquated policy of reimbursing health care claims quickly without verifying them. The brisk payments, typically made within 14 days, keep the healthcare system going but also fuel corruption.
In September, President Barack Obama signed an anti-fraud law that will require the behemoth Medicare bureaucracy to act more like a credit card company in flagging suspicious claims that could save taxpayers billions of dollars a year in wasteful government healthcare spending. The anti-fraud provision, tucked into the Small Business Lending Act, will force Medicare and its claims contractors to adopt new billing software with "predictive modeling" for the 10 worst states by next year.
No wonder many in the Healthcare Industry, including Doctors, want to make sure President Obama does not win re-election in 2012.
Just another example of what happens when the penalties for lawlessness are inadequate. We need a new bureau of forensic accountants to ferret out these miscreants funded entirely by the proceeds from confiscation of property acquired with funds from fraudulent Medicare Medicaid claims.
ReplyDeleteUltima, You, Me and my friend MeeMaw (my prima and who is employed in the Health Care Industry) all agree on this.
ReplyDeleteIf we stopped all of the Medicare Fraud, we would save TRILLIONS! According to MeeMaw, this fraud ran rampant during the Bush administration. They were all quick to bill and there was virtually no oversight then.
Now, under the Obama administration, the Feds are zeroing in on all of the Fraudsters, filing charges against them, prosecuting them and holding them accountable. I say it is about time!
With all of these arrests that MeeMaw has reported, I am personally curious about three things and I am going to ask her to investigate and write about them:
1. Why isn't the Obama Administration BOASTING about these arrests and about the multi millions (so far) that they are RECOUPING from these "stings". MeeMaw said they have been going on since March.
Why aren't the Dems raising their own flag. (although I think it is great they are continuing to investigate and arrest more of these deplorable criminals)
2. Why aren't the Republican commenting either way about this? Why are they being so SILENT about these investigations and arrests? I want to know whose side they are on! It seems they are on the criminals' side because they are SO QUICK in saying Medicare recipients are losing benefits. I have never seen ONE benefit a Medicare recipient has lost. (MeeMaw can you check on this? Have the Seniors lost ANY benefits with "Obamacare?") Tell me one and I will post it. Why aren't Republicans giving Kudos to the President and his Administration for all of these arrests?
3. Where are the doctors and all of the credible Health Care providers comments in all of these arrests? I have NOT heard ONE KUDO. Why? It is more on the inverse side. They chastise President Obama -- suggesting Seniors are losing benefits. WHERE are they losing benefits? Find this out for us MeeMaw!
There is something totally wrong on this entire issue.
MeeMaw.... PLEASE INVESTIGATE!!!! (I promise to post your findings!)