Headlines: Medicare fraud, wasting $750 billion
Photo by 401K via flickr
I thought I would kick off the week by pointing out two stories related to health care spending that I read this weekend.
The first was printed Sunday in The Roanoke Times detailing the government’s case against the Saltville Rescue Squad. Federal prosecutors say the volunteer rescue squad defrauded Medicare of nearly $1 million by repeatedly driving patients to dialysis treatments and the illegally billing the government. The story, reported by Laurence Hammack, also offers insight into the larger crackdown on health care fraud in Western Virginia.
Next, I caught up on a report from the Institute of Medicine estimating that the US health care system wastes $750 billion annually. That’s “roughly 30 cents of every medical dollar – through unneeded care, byzantine paperwork, fraud and other waste,” according to the Associated Press story.
September 10, 2012 - 9:36 AM
It’s getting close to Medicare supplement open enrollment time. Have you heard if Carilion will be offering their Advantage for 3013?
@David I haven’t heard specifics yet, but I expect to soon. Open enrollment will be from Oct. 15 to Dec. 7, according to the Medicare.gov website.