U.S. charges 89 people in $223 million Medicare fraud schemes

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Reuters

U.S. charges 89 people in $223 million Medicare fraud schemes
Source: Reuters - Tue, 14 May 2013 08:04 PM
Author: Reuters

By David Morgan

WASHINGTON, May 14 (Reuters) - Federal officials charged 89 people including doctors, nurses and other medical professionals in eight U.S. cities on Tuesday with Medicare fraud schemes that the government said totaled $223 million in false billings.

In the latest big Medicare fraud crackdown, more than 400 law enforcement officers including FBI agents fanned out in Miami, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York and other cities to make arrests. Authorities said suspects posed as physicians, preyed on the poor and otherwise scammed the $590 billion healthcare program with phony or unnecessary bills.

About one in four defendants was a doctor, a nurse, a physical therapist or some other medical professional.

"In many of these alleged schemes, the fraudulent billings could not have occurred without a doctor signing off on bogus services, or a nurse or therapist filling out false paperwork," Acting U.S. Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman told reporters.

"In all of the ... schemes, profit was the driving force," she said.


Read more: http://www.trust.org/item/20130514200409-o9fh8/?source=search

[Hekate]

1. That's a change to Medicare I can live with.

All along I have believed that a crackdown on genuine, costly, fraud is part of what has been in the works. It will save a bunch of money that can go directly to patient care instead.

[DeSwiss]

2. ....

Why an MRI costs 1080.00 in America and 280.00 in France


- There's stealing, and then there's STEALING.......

[Tx4obama]

3. Are these the same folks that were arrested in October 2012 ???

U.S. Arrests 91 In Massive $430 Million Medicare Fraud Bust
Oct 5, 2012

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Attorney General Eric Holder announced Thursday that the Medicare Fraud Strike Force has arrested 91 people for a variety of Medicare billing fraud schemes across seven U.S. cities. The alleged fraud is massive in both scope and breadth, totaling over $230 million in home care billing fraud and $100 million in mental health billing fraud and involving health professionals including doctors, nurses, and various other care providers:

“Today’s enforcement actions reveal an alarming and unacceptable trend of individuals attempting to exploit federal health care programs to steal billions in taxpayer dollars for personal gain,” said Attorney General Holder. “Such activities not only siphon precious taxpayer resources, drive up health care costs, and jeopardize the strength of the Medicare program — they also disproportionately victimize the most vulnerable members of society, including elderly, disabled and impoverished Americans.”

“Today’s arrests put criminals on notice that we are cracking down hard on people who want to steal from Medicare,” said HHS Secretary Sebelius. “The health care law gives us new tools to better fight fraud and make Medicare stronger. In addition to the arrests made today, HHS used new authority from the health care law to stop future payments to many of the health care providers suspected of fraud, saving Medicare resources and taxpayer dollars from being lost to fraud in the first place.”

-snip-

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/10/05/966831/massive-430-million-medicare-fraud-bust/

[Curmudgeoness]

12. Well, let's hope not!

I would love to think that we are catching this many frauds every month!

Now....if they will only go after the scooter ads!

[Tx4obama]

14. The Feds raided the Scooter folks in February 2013. Article and video on the link below

The SCOOTER Store power wheelchair company raided in federal probe
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505266_162-57570450/the-scooter-store-power-wheelchair-company-raided-in-federal-probe/

[Curmudgeoness]

15. Good.

I was just now thinking that I had not heard those ads for a while....I missed this.

[okaawhatever]

16. The scooter folks also have laws or rules in their favor. I'm sure they lobbyed for. Example medicar

can't buy used scooters. So medicare pays about seven grand for new ones. What kind of crap is that. I understand their needing to go through a recertification process to make sure they're mechanically sound, but a new one each time is an example of special interest groups getting rules that serve only themselves.

[GreenTea]

4. Cheers to investigators - You know there are a fucking lot more frauds sucking up Medicare for their

own profit....when others really need it - and the fucking republicans want to cut it down to nothing....Republicans never go after the white collars they just scam and get away with it when there's a republican Attoney General and/or administration.

this money can go a long way to help Obamacare for people who really need the care not these multi million dollars slime living in their gated community and pretending to be legitimately successful with their friends neighbors family and in their community.....These are the pigs.

[L0oniX]

10. It's nice to know that some LEO are doing their job. n/t

[Auggie]

5. Throw the book at them! I want license revocations too!

You rip-off Medicare ... you lose your license to practice medicine. It's an apt punishment.

[L0oniX]

11. They should lose their right to ever qualify for Medicare and SS. n/t

[niyad]

6. "In all of the ... schemes, profit was the driving force,"

so when is the govt going to go after halliburton, kbr, all the defense contractors who have defrauded us for billions, the banks, the oil companies, etc? 223 million is barely a drop in the pentagon budget, much less what the banksters and other fraudsters have stolen from us.

[tridim]

7. Righteous! I bet the Republicans oppose it.

[L0oniX]

9. Naturally. n/t

[SharonAnn]

8. 20 years ago in Dayton, OH, a R-W eye doctor was arrested for millions in Medicare fraud

Seems that he claimed to have performed 2-3 times the number of cataract surgeries than he actually performed. He'd do one eye and claim he did both eyes, he'd claim he did surfery when he didn't, etc.

But, he was the most politically active, right-wing advocate that we'd yet seen in Dayton (except for the fundamentalist anti-choice people).

[okaawhatever]

17. Another example of eye care type fraud is the gov't not stopping mergers in the eye care field

allowing there to be an oligopoly. There is now a 3000% mark-up in eyeglasses. While Luxottica (owner of Sunglass Hut,LensCrafters, Perle Vision centers, Sears and Target Optical, Ray Ban, Oakley, DKNY, Revo, Prada, Bvlgari and more) Although Luxottica started prior to Bush, Bush was notorious for not stopping mergers in both health care and business.

[Half-Century Man]

13. And another one

And here is another argument for Universal Health Care.
Correct me if I'm wrong. we have "privatized" health care, not "pirate-tized".

[Sunlei]

18. good more FRAUD stopped- how long before Rs spin this also as a 'cut' to medicare?