Medicare Now Required Check For Fraud Before Paying Claims

The Miami Herald wrote today: "The behemoth Medicare bureaucracy will have to act more like a credit card company in flagging suspicious bills under a new federal law that could save taxpayers billions of dollars a year in wasteful government healthcare spending. The anti-fraud provision, tucked into the Small Business Lending Act that became law Monday, would force Medicare to end its 45-year-old policy of paying claims quickly without verifying them" (Weaver, 9/30).

Meanwhile, chronic fraud in the Medicare program continues, such as one court case now unfolding in Michigan.

The Detroit Free Press: "A Detroit-area man faces 10 years in prison after pleading guilty Monday to running a health care fraud scheme that involved billing the government for home health visits that were unnecessary or never happened" (Baldas, 9/28).

The Detroit News: Hassan Akhtar, 26, entered his plea to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and faces a maximum $250,000 fine when sentenced Jan. 27. Akhtar admitted to federal investigators he and co-conspirators at Oak Park-based All American Home Care Inc. billed Medicare for home health-care visits that were medically unnecessary and/or never provided, according to the U.S. Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services" (Snell, 9/28).

This is part of Kaiser Health News' Daily Report - a summary of health policy coverage from more than 300 news organizations. The full summary of the day's news can be found here and you can sign up for e-mail subscriptions to the Daily Report here. In addition, our staff of reporters and correspondents file original stories each day, which you can find on our home page.

View the original article here