GAO report: Nearly 10% of Medicare payments are fraudulent or improper
CMS estimates that $48 billion of estimated Medicare outlays of $509 billion in fiscal 2010 went to improper payments, including fraudulent ones. “However, this improper payment estimate did not include all of the program’s risk since it did not include improper payments in its Part D prescription drug benefit, for which the agency has not yet estimated a total amount,” said Kathleen King, director of GAO’s health care team.
Officials said it’s also much harder to identify how much of the improper payments were caused by fraud, which left some GOP lawmakers at the hearing frustrated.
“If you can’t identify it, you can’t penetrate it down,” subcommittee Chairman Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) said. He said it is “incomprehensible” that CMS can’t estimate the level of fraud in the program.
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Ah, so this is the $500 billion in fraud Obamacare is going to root out!
John the Libertarian on March 2, 2011 at 11:54 PM
And nearly 10% of votes for Democratic politicians are fraudulent or improper.
steebo77 on March 2, 2011 at 11:56 PM
Yeah, too bad Obamacare itself is several trillion more in fraud and mismanagement being foisted onto the states.
teke184 on March 2, 2011 at 11:57 PM
Being one who is on Disability, I’m glad this is being brought out into the open. I’ve been denied Medicaid, yet healthy people are screaming for free coverage. These scumsucking d-bags would rather take from the old and the sick before actually getting a job.
viviliberoomuori on March 3, 2011 at 12:05 AM
And most states have a Medicare/Medicaid fraud unit of their attorney general’s office. Unfortunately, I’m sure they’re unionized, so good luck getting rid of all that lucrative Medicare/Medicaid fraud boondoggle. O/T why is Allahpundit still up?
cynccook on March 3, 2011 at 12:09 AM
And this is what the libtards want when they say Medicare for All. Idiots.
Apologetic California on March 3, 2011 at 12:10 AM
FIFY
pedestrian on March 3, 2011 at 12:12 AM
Most medical fraud is discovered by insurance companies simply because they have a better handle on money than Medicare or Medicaid. Oftentimes when we at the insurance company find fraud and notify Medicare/Medicaid, they inform us that they “don’t care” or are far too busy with other stuff to worry about fraud that small or that localized.
Think about that. There are doctors and hospitals who make BILLIONS in fraudulent claims to Medicare and Medicaid. And the fraud departments of Medicare and Medicaid don’t care about some of the fraud discovered. Not only that, they refuse to investigate most of it. Instead, they let us do it, then take all the credit when a doctor is stripped of their license or a hospital is taken to task….
Fraud investigations are interesting, but I gotta tell ya, working with Medicare and Medicaid is nigh on impossible.
mjk on March 3, 2011 at 12:18 AM
I bet it’s at least 40%
SouthernGent on March 3, 2011 at 12:24 AM
But liberals insist that insurance companies are evil entities that we must purge from our existence.
Insurance companies have in interest in uncovering bogus claims. The federal government doesn’t.
Why don’t people get this?
BuckeyeSam on March 3, 2011 at 12:53 AM
The highest I’d go is 20% in the MidWest, but I deeply suspect it’s much, much higher in states with huge populations. Mostly because it’s much easier to slip stuff through the cracks
mjk on March 3, 2011 at 12:54 AM
And Medicare/Medicaid have the largest rate of service refusals.
Cindy Munford on March 3, 2011 at 1:15 AM
You empower private companies to identify fraud for a percentage of the recovery.
TheBigOldDog on March 3, 2011 at 6:19 AM
And to give everyone a nice round number, here you go: 60 billion dollars!!!
Lance Murdock on March 3, 2011 at 8:07 AM
I would have guessed that it was a good bit higher.
SC.Charlie on March 3, 2011 at 8:23 AM
Only 10%?
I’ll believe that after Global Warming and the story that Michele Moore is on a Diet.
Colbyjack on March 3, 2011 at 9:12 AM
When was the last time we had a Congress and President seriously trying to eliminate waste & duplicate programs? Has it ever even happened in the last 100 years?
roy_batty on March 3, 2011 at 9:35 AM
It most assuredly is NOT that CMS “cannot estimate” the amount of fraud in the Medicare program. Rather, it is obvious that those in power at CMS don’t want to admit the scope of the fraud and therefore either
a) WON’T estimate the amount of fraud, or
b) HAVE estimated the amount of fraud and are loathe to make that estimate public.
JeffH on March 3, 2011 at 10:44 AM
I hate these arguments. If you come out and say “we just need to get rid of waste, fraud, and abuse, we could fix Social Security and Medicare without raising taxes or cutting benefits!” Prattling on about waste, fraud, and abuse is a tried-and-true method of kicking the can down the road. Enough already!
Yes, we should do something about waste, fraud, and abuse. But let’s do that on top of making the necessary reforms to those entitlements needed to ensure their long term solvency. If eliminating fraud and waste really shaves 10% off, maybe we can restore some benefits down the road…
Outlander on March 3, 2011 at 11:06 AM
Whistleblowers can get a piece of any recovery through a provision of the False Claims Act, and can even bring their own lawsuits (called “qui tam claims”) to seek that recovery. The concept came from Ye Olde England.
Outlander on March 3, 2011 at 11:11 AM