Fanny Pack Mixup Unravels Massive Medicare Fraud Scheme

[marmar]

This piece originally ran on ProPublica.

The fraud scheme began to unravel last fall, with the discovery of a misdirected stack of bogus prescriptions — and a suspicious spike in Medicare drug spending tied to a doctor in Key Biscayne, Fla.

Now it’s led to two guilty pleas, as well as an ongoing criminal case against a pharmacy owner.

Last year, ProPublica chronicled how lax oversight had led to rampant waste and fraud in Medicare’s prescription drug program, known as Part D. As part of that series, we wrote about Dr. Carmen Ortiz-Butcher, a kidney specialist whose Part D prescriptions soared from $282,000 in 2010 to $4 million the following year. The value of her prescriptions rose to nearly $5 million in 2012, the most recent year available.

But no one in Medicare bothered to ask her about the seemingly huge change in her practice, Ortiz-Butcher’s attorney said. She stumbled across a sign of trouble last September, after asking a staffer to mail a fanny pack to her brother. But instead of receiving the pack, he received a package of prescriptions purportedly signed by the doctor, lawyer Robert Mayer said last year. Ortiz-Butcher immediately alerted authorities. .................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/fanny_pack_mixup_unravels_massive_medicare_fraud_scheme_20140712

[Frustratedlady]

1. I'd love to see the total amount of dollars stolen through Medicare/Medicaid in Florida

over the past few years. It just seems that so many of those cases are from Florida and amount to million$.

[Enthusiast]

2. I wonder what % of medicare and medicaid is lost to fraud.

I bet it's a bunch.

[onethatcares]

3. why not ask our governor?

yeah, as a Florida resident I wonder and at the same time am amazed at the amount of fraud perpetuated on its citizenry.

and that's not just medicare fraud either. every fucking government contract seems to be tainted to the moneyed interests in my opinion.

[McCamy Taylor]

4. It is scary how many good minds get wasted pulling crap like this

when they could do real work instead.