Fraud Gone Wild.................

1st arrest made in Medicare fraud case

Thursday in Detroit, Shafrulla Hanif Abdul was charged by federal agents with one count of executing a scheme to defraud a health care benefit program. Abdul worked under the names, Hand-On Rehab Services Inc. and M&M Management Inc. His scheme was a follows:

"According to an FBI affidavit, Abdul paid Medicare recipients hundreds of
dollars to provide their Medicare ID numbers and repeatedly put their signatures
on blank sheets of paper. Abdul sold the fraudulent documents to companies that
billed Medicare for hundreds of thousands of dollars, and possibly millions, in
physical therapy services that were never performed, the complaint alleges. "

Special Agent Elna Marchi-Woznak, head of the FBI's Health Care Fraud squad in Detroit was interviewed and stated that this type of fraud is out of control. This case is considered to be the first of a series of indictments that will be handed out for complex, multimillion-dollar schemes across Metro Detroit that bilk Medicare through fraudulent billing.

Although I am not a fan of Big Brother, intervention is needed to ensure these programs for the poor are safe guarded from this type of abuse.

Wild

One of the Options......

CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Metro & Tri-State :: The mother of all judgments: $334 million


Amerigroup Illinois and Amerigroup Corp was paid by Illinois to provide medicaid. The company turned in by their Vice President, Cleveland A. Tyson, would avoid insuring "unhealthies" and third trimester pregnant women. AmeriGroup was doing was this with dollars paid to them by Federal Government to take care of the poor. According to the charges, AmeriGroup used this money to line their own pockets. These people were trusted with taking care of the poor and decided to save money instead by denying services to those who needed it the most. I hope the government is taking notes. Who's to say how many other organizations are committing fraud?

Medication Errors Are Studied - New York Times

Medication Errors Are Studied - New York Times

These mistakes are just another example of how the federal health care system needs to be examined closely before new protocols are introduce . This article published in the New York Times clearly illustrates how these programs need more supervision.

Another group targeted.......

Lacking Papers, Citizens Are Cut From Medicaid - New York Times

This article in the New York Times discusses how enforcement of the tougher measures to qualify for medicaid, will affect millions of illegal aliens who rely on these programs to care for their families. I am hoping that when the dust settles, care for illegal aliens will be included in the plan for health care in this country.