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Medicare Fraud

October 23, 2009 10:47 AM

Billions of dollars are being stolen from Medicare each year. Steve Kroft spoke to one man who got caught and explained how he managed to bilk the system. 60 Minutes, Sunday at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

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by crotalus59 November 10, 2009 9:42 PM EST
Obama has vowed to do away with the medicare advantage plans in order to save approximately five billion in medicare fraud. This will create a serious burden on millions of seniors. What the federal government should be doing is adding more field investigators to police medicare fraud. In a nutshell, the president and congress are incapable of inforcing the law, when it comes to medicare fraud because the investigators are grossly understaffed. Meanwhile, the crooks, like the one that appeared on 60 Minutes on 10-25-2009, are ripping off the medicare system for billions and laughing all the way to the bank.
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by keshaosheng November 5, 2009 1:06 AM EST
The revelations, as reported in your story, is disturbing and shocking.

U.S. media has long reported on the culture of corruption in the
Republic of Armenia and its negative effect on the U.S., including the
widespread fleecing of American business people, as well as scams
emanating from Armenia to ?obtain? Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement
dollars and U.S. aid dollars.

This newest transgression of pervasive fraud further must be a wakeup
call to Armenian leadership to address their culture of corruption.

KSS
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by Lvsgolf November 1, 2009 8:44 PM EST
Golly, gee, maybe Obama watched this segment. Maybe he could get the bad guys instead raising our taxes in order to REFORM health care.

20 billion should be enough. Seems like it'd be worth FIXING the problem instead of adding confusion and needless change.

If Obama doesn't address this news I will be completely distrusting of him and his office. 20 billion. That's the CARE in health care.

Health Care can never be FREE. Everytime another country says they get free health care it's NOT TRUE. Their taxes are VERY high. It's not FREE.
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by jqm46 October 26, 2009 12:55 PM EDT
I find it interesting that CBS should air this Fraud expose, seemingly critical of the Governments ability to administer Medicare, on the eve of what could be the most meaningful overhaul of America's healthcare system.

I find it more interesting that instead of announcing this as a multipart investigation, delving deeply into this very real problem, CBS chose to go for glamour and the glitz by interviewing the FBI and a criminal rather than ask the question as to who actually administers the Medicare Claims.

The government selects independent contractors to administer the Medicare Claims. Who are these companies? What was the criteria for their selection? Under whose guidance were they selected? Who are the elected officials on the oversight panels for these contractors?

Further, what relationship do these contractors have with insurance companies? What relationship do the elected officials have with lobbyists for the insurance companies?

I believe Sixty Minutes has left too many questions unasked.

The contractors hired to administer claims are paying bills with money that is not theirs, in fact the money is ours and, as CBS has pointed out, they are not doing a very good job of safeguarding our funds. If anything it is the Governments task to make these contractors more accountable for their actions.

This all seems to get back to insurance companies. These companies, no matter what we pay them, are not our friends. Nor are the people allowing them to continue dictating healhcare policy in our country.

If CBS is to be the "Trusted" News, take this where it leads, don't stop with the statement that fraud exists, seek out the enablers and expose them.
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by MedEquipWI October 25, 2009 8:41 PM EDT
Please know that there are honest and caring medical equipment providers out there. The company I work with scrupulously follows Medicare and state regulations. Medicare fraud is widespread and the healthcare industry needs better oversight; but, to say everyone is corrupt is not true.
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by notsosimple October 25, 2009 8:29 PM EDT
As Mitzi100 said, thank you for doing this story and it does have to stay in front of the general public. I have heard seniors complain about their Medicare statements because they do not agree with actual services rendered or supplies received. Please encourage anyone with a valid complaint to call the tip line at 1-800-HHS-TIPS (1-800-447-8477. For more information please visit http://www.medicare.gov/fraudabuse/HowToReport.asp.
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by hoop1920 October 25, 2009 7:39 PM EDT
I work for a Doctor who has 3-4 Medicare patients. We usually submit one claim per month for each patient. Medicare has sent back dozens of our legit claim forms for things like writing outside of the lines, for putting "on file" on the signature line instead of "signature on file" and for several other minor errors. Yet they have no problem approving and paying on these claims.

Perhaps, someone should look into the clerical staff at the agencies that process Medicare claim forms! Maybe if they didn't spend so much time for these minor errors, they would be able to spend time to check for theft!
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by dorothy1234562 October 25, 2009 7:24 PM EDT
Gosh, I have to comment on the segment on medicare fraud! It is the little people who do this, too! This is why we cannot afford health care in our country. A family I once knew owned a small medical supply company. They supplied shoes to all the seniors at nursing homes in our state. Shoes were bought for as little as $20 and billed to Medicare for over $80. Everything billed to Medicare was more than double in price! A small profit to any family is acceptable to all of us. Yet, what was being done by this family was beyond awful. Yes, our state shut them down with a huge fine. The comment told to me by this family was "everyone does it and we were made an example of because we are Jewish!" Having a heart of greed is not Jewish or even Christian and is what many people in our country have today. I truly hope "everyone does NOT do this" because I believe in our country! If we all work together, little by little our system can change and hearts can soften and change,too! Thank you 60 minutes for doing this report for making us all aware of the problems our country is facing with huge insurance bills because of the lack of integrity by many with hearts filled with greed that need to change today.
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by djelite October 24, 2009 10:27 PM EDT
YEA and I,been in the E.M.S for over ten years and i dont,t understand why GOV/TDH dont,t check out people be 4 they give them license/ or and a medcare contact to bill on and medicare should have flag on person that are dead i don.t no much about dme but Ambulance/E.M.S has to be license first and they come to your place of businees to make sure you are in compliance.... What I trying to said is that would stop some of this Fraud that is hurting medicare and the medical Companys that trying to do thing the right way because there good and bad but the good shouldn,t be force out of business because there are real people that need our Help.....if it wasn.t for private Ambulance companys helping out when Storms hit down it would be a Diaster........
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by djelite October 24, 2009 10:23 PM EDT
YEA and I,been in the e.m.s for over ten years and idont,t understand why GOV/TDH dont,t check out people be 4 they give them license/ or and a medcare contact to bill on and medicare should have flag on person that are dead i don.t no much about dme but Ambulance/E.M.S has to be license first and they come to your place of businees to make sure you are in compliance.... What I trying to said is that would stop some of this Fraud that is hurting medicare and the medical Companys that trying to do thing the right way because there good and bad but the good shouldn,t be force out of business because there are real people that need our Help.....if it wasn.t for private Ambulance companys helping out when Storms hit down it would be a Diaster........
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by Mitzi100 October 23, 2009 8:28 PM EDT
I've read the brief article and watched the segment that will be covered this Sunday evening on Medicare fraud. You are only covering the tip of the iceberg. I have worked for a Medicare contractor for 15 years, originally as a fraud investigator, and the DME is only one aspect of the scams. If the media would keep this in front of the general public on an ongoing basis it would help tremendously. Florida, specifically Dade and Broward counties should be a target area for all media resources. Laboratories, physicians, clinics, diagnostics, infusion therapy, community mental health centers, comprehensive outpatient rehab centers, all of them are getting rich off of Medicare funds. DHHS and CMS need to loosen the reigns on the contractors and let them do more. Thank you for doing this story. I hope there are many more to come and more frequently.
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