Medifraud
ChrisB on Aug 21 2008 at 3:18 pm | Filed under: Chris' Page, Health Care, Libertarianism
Michael F. Cannon at Cato blogs about a NYTimes article on the rife fraud found and covered up at Medicare. A confidential draft of a federal inspector general’s report claimed that the behavior they found at the Medicare Administration was rife with irregularities.
Medicare reported to Congress that, for the fiscal year of 2006, AdvanceMed’s investigations had found that only 7.5 percent of claims paid by Medicare were not supported by appropriate documentation. But the inspector general’s review indicated that the actual error rate was closer to 31.5 percent.
Law makers called it “tantamount to corruption”. Michael ends his piece with some great quotes:
[One] congressional watchdog had seen it all before:
“This report doesn’t surprise me,” said Representative Pete Stark, Democrat of California and a senior member of the Ways and Means Committee. He has pushed to cut improper Medicare spending. “To look better to the public, you cook the books,” he said. “This agency is incompetent.”
Of course, Pete Stark’s solution for Medicare’s incompetence is to force you to enroll:
There is a road map laid out for us…Medicare. Medicare has lower administrative costs than any private plan on the market…Medicare has shown us the power of simplicity; we need only expand its promise to the rest of our population.
Medifraud for all!
heh, indeed.
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