Case shows challenges in recouping cash from fraud
DALLAS — The case of a troubled Texas hospital system shows how a federal, $24 billion stimulus program that distributes funds to help computerize health-care records has been vulnerable to fraud.
It also highlights the challenges in recouping the money that wasn’t used for those purposes, The Dallas Morning News reported. Experts say the stimulus fraud is made worse by a “pay-and-chase” system, or for giving out money without first screening recipients and later chasing it, usually after it’s vanished.
A recent inspector general report also disclosed that outstanding federal criminal debts have climbed past $100 billion while staffing to recover stolen funds has declined.
The U.S. Health and Human Services Department awarded nearly $18 million through the program to Tariq Mahmood’s rural hospital chain. The newspaper reported in 2013 that the vast majority of the money wasn’t used to upgrade the hospital’s electronic records.
Read more: http://www.tdtnews.com/news/article_78476a70-1951-11e5-832a-03237bde8329.html
[font color=330099]Please see this link for additional information about Mahmood and his hospital chain: http://www.democraticunderground.com/107826309[/font]
