Monday, October 26, 2009

60 Minutes: Medicare Fraud

Last night, CBS's 60 Minutes aired a 14 minute piece on Medicare Fraud titled "The $60 Billion Fraud." It hits a lot of good points in an easy-to-digest way including fake providers billing for fake services and equipment. It doesn't even get into some of the other ways these criminals defraud the system like inventing patient ID numbers (necessary to bill Medicare) or paying off seniors to let providers bill for high reimbursement services - such as fake chemotherapy (ie. a kickback or bribe). The investigation does go straight to the Medicare fraud capital of the US - South Florida where there are hundreds of thousands of Medicare recipients. In Miami-Dade county, it is expected to cost Medicare $14,851/person/year in 2009 primarily due to the extra fraud costs. For comparison's sake, there are other US counties where it costs $6,000-8,000/person/year to cover the elderly (primarily the more rural counties with cheaper labor costs.) It's quite an interesting video!


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Sources: CBS News, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

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