Healthcare Digest 5/15: Jail Time for Healthcare Fraud

Eighty-nine people in eight cities are on the hook for healthcare fraud.

“The government’s sixth national crackdown on healthcare fraud since 2010 involved $223 million in fraudulent claims in jurisdictions including Miami, Detroit, Los Angeles and Brooklyn, New York, the Justice Department said.”

Hooray! we all say, because those are Bad People and they’re not helping the price of healthcare go down just like shoplifters do nothing to make things cheaper but wait!

“Holder said efforts to expand the battle against fraud is being affected by automatic across-the-board federal budget cuts, known as sequestration, which have stripped $1.6 billion in funding from the Justice Department for the fiscal year ending September 30.”

Wanna see more bad guys get in trouble for pocketing funds that aren’t theirs? Too bad! Sequestration!

“Since 2007, officials say the government’s Medicare Fraud Strike Force has charged more than 1,500 defendants who have falsely billed the Medicare program for the elderly and disabled for $5 billion.”

What’s sad about that figure, just from looking at the headlines over the past year: that 1,500 number should be a LOT higher, right? Because it seems like everyone and his brother is bilking Medicare out of millions.

Wednesday’s Headlines

Good News for Old(er) People!: “Healthcare costs put a big squeeze on retiree pocketbooks, but the grip may be relaxing a bit.” [Reuter]

Every Good Deed Has a Hook: “A healthcare company that provided aid to disabled Miami-Dade students may have overbilled the school district by more than $1 million, according to the district’s chief auditor.” [Miami Herald]

You’re Making Healthcare Worse By Not Using the Cloud: “Healthcare delivery in the United States is high cost and suffers from inconsistent quality. A primary cause of these issues has been the reliance on antiquated, paper-based clinical records. These paper records have been an enormous barrier to high quality care — making it virtually impossible to deliver coordinated care, locking away in paper data needed to analyze what works and doesn’t in healthcare. For years lack of available data structured a system that pays for activity, rather than results. Now with the introduction of Electronic Healthcare Records (EHR), technology has stepped in to lead healthcare reform.” [Computer World]