The U.S. Departments of Justice and of Health and Human Services have recently released their joint report on what they accomplished in 2009 to combat fraud against the Medicare, Medicaid and various other federal healthcare programs. (Goggle “Annual Report for FY 2009 on the Health Care and Abuse Control Program.”) It gives page after page of disheartening detail on how the Medicare program is mercilessly and shamelessly ripped off and defrauded with scheme after scam after plot, many of these frauds going on for years, with amounts totaling billions of dollars stolen from the program. And these are the ones we know about!
But what I found even more appalling was that in many of these scams Medicare beneficiaries were willing participants! The very people who have most to gain by protecting the program were full engaged in the rip offs!! Over and over you can read how beneficiaries were offered – and accepted – bribes, kickbacks and payola to conspire in these crimes. But what is even worse, and which belies the government’s promise of “zero tolerance on fraud” is that NOTHING was done to any of these beneficiaries to either punish them for their frauds or to take away or restrict their Medicare entitlement. It’s like giving out “Get Out of Jail Free” cards. And in my experience, I have never known of a beneficiary being prosecuted or having their Medicare card revoked or suspended for defrauding Medicare. Perhaps it’s time this changed.
Again, beneficiaries, this is YOUR program, and YOU need to protect it!
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