Billions in Florida Fraud Rocks Medicare

As if there wasn’t enough fraud in the world today – especially in Miami – the FBI has uncovered even more.  This is not your garden variety every day fraud, this fraud has been big business and cost the government and taxpayers billions – yes BILLIONS – of Medicare dollars.

While many honest citizens are working hard to pay billions of dollars for a war and other conflicts that they may or may not agree with, these individuals have stolen money that could help bolster the Medicare system, which is having some serious financial issues, in case they hadn’t heard. 

It brings to mind the old question about whether you would steal from your own parents or grandparents.  Apparently, these fraudsters would.  In fact, not only have they done that, but by taking BILLIONS away from a system that is so badly needed by our most vulnerable citizens, they are also stealing from their own children and grandchildren.  Of course, when you think about it, their parents, grandparents, children and grandchildren may not need the benefits since they will have all the money that was stolen – unless it gets confiscated by the FBI. 

The way this particular scam worked, “patients” were recruited to see particular doctors.  They were paid each time they went to an office visit.  The clinics that these doctors work for then billed Medicare for all sorts of fraudulent services, including AIDS treatment that is not even used any more in the United States. 

Medicare does not combat fraud as effectively or aggressively as private insurance companies do, even though they have received funds to do so.  One of the primary reasons that Medicare is not effective at preventing fraud is that they do not have a system that prevents fraud before money is dispensed.  Without a containment system at the beginning of the claims process, it is impossible to stop fraud because once the money has been paid out, it is much more difficult to get it back – especially because most of the time, the fraudsters have already left the country.

Medicare is a huge agency with an enormous budget and over 44 million people who depend on it.  Fraud costs Medicare over $60 million per year.  Surely there are ways to eliminate at least some of that fraud.  Eliminating even half of it would fix the Medicare budget and the education budget, too.

Filed under: General-Medicare

Tags: General-Medicare, medicare dollars, medicare fraud, medicare problems, Medicare system