Obama using 'bounty hunters' to root out fraud

[cory777]

Source: AP

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR, Associated Press Writer Ricardo Alonso-zaldivar, Associated Press Writer – Tue Mar 9, 11:14 pm ET

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama said Tuesday he'll bring in high-tech bounty hunters to help root out health care fraud, grabbing a populist idea with bipartisan backing in his final push to overhaul the system.

The White House announcement came as Obama prepared to travel to Missouri on Wednesday, taking his closing argument to the nation's heartland. The trip will be his second public appearance this week to rally support and fire up nervous Democrats.

The White House released details of the anti-fraud plan hours after a fresh challenge to the administration from major business groups that unveiled a multimillion-dollar ad campaign arguing that under Obama's plan "health care costs will go even higher, making a bad economy worse."

The ad buy, costing between $4 million and $10 million, will start Wednesday on national cable TV outlets. Later in the week, the campaign shifts to 17 states home to moderate and conservative Democrats. Their votes are critical to Obama's endgame for passing legislation to expand coverage to millions who now lack it and revamp

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100310/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_health_care_overhaul

[Go2Peace]

1. Great Idea! Let's apply that to bank fraud too.....

[glitch]

19. ++ and any government contractor fraud as well. nt

[Kalun D]

2. Better Start

He better start by rooting out the fraud in his own whitehouse, among his hand picked people that he appointed, how about Gietner and Bernanke to start with, talk about multi $Billion dollar criminals.

[lonestarnot]

3. Point taken, however I like this idea! Think I will brush up my skills.

:evilgrin:

[Demeter]

8. + 13 Trillion

or whatever the Bailout is up to now.

[DeSwiss]

4. Fuck this shit.

Medicare for ALL!!!

[EFerrari]

5. We should just email him the corporate addresses of Big Pharma

and the insurance vultures. We could split the bounty! Grovelbot could get a make over. :)

[Blue State Bandit]

6. That $10 Million In Commercials...

just came out of your premiums. It's not the HCR raising rates, it's actions like this.

The 10's of billions spent in lobbying could insure millions for years.

[girl gone mad]

7. Start with the $23 Trillion sinkhole called Wall St.

and their enablers inside of your administration: Geithner, Rubin, Summers, and Bernanke.

[dmr]

9. Medicare Fraud is lucrative and very dangerous -

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/10/07/national/main5368454.shtml

- snip -
Medicare-fraud investigations used to focus mainly on patient records and financial papers, but now the crime scenes are increasingly bloody:

In 2007, authorities found Juana Gonzalez lying in a pool of blood on the floor of her Miami pharmacy. Her cousin was charged with second-degree murder, accused of taking a piece of a broken toilet and slitting Gonzalez's throat. Federal authorities said they were investigating the pharmacy for Medicare fraud and believe the crimes are related.

In 2004, a week after the FBI issued search warrants on more than 50 fraudulent Medicare storefronts in Miami, the body of Ernesto Valdes was found in the back seat of his car, riddled with bullets. Federal authorities said he had information that could have linked players in the $148 million fraud scheme. No one has ever been charged in his slaying.

In 2006, members of a Russian-Armenian organized crime ring were indicted for allegedly bilking Medicare of more than $20 million through a group of medical clinics they ran in the Los Angeles area. The group included Konstantin Grigoryan, a former colonel in the Soviet army, family members and others with past criminal records.

"They don't have the typical structure that we see in Italian mobs. They'll work with whoever can make them money. And if they don't get their way, they won't be ashamed to kidnap somebody, to shoot somebody," said Glendale Police Lt. Steve Davey, who leads the Southern California Eurasian Organized Crime Task Force.

The violent crimes are mostly to settle a debt or silence a witness.

"It's in-house. Typically professional hits, generally unsolved. Usually it's just a bullet in the head, nobody saw anything," said Los Angeles County Sheriff's Sgt. Stephen Opferman.

The Armenian gangs have also aggressively pursued elderly patients, intimidating them to obtain their Medicare numbers, Opferman said. Police have received reports from family members who feared their grandmother had been abducted, only to learn later that she was picked up in a van and taken to a fake store where her Medicare number was swiped.

In Los Angeles, two federal authorities investigating Medicare fraud say colleagues have been threatened and had their cars followed.

[Iowa]

10. Pfft

Another piddling half-measure that makes for a good sound-bite. Anything to prop up the status-quo and ignore the real problems.

From the article: "The bounty hunters in this case would be private auditors armed with sophisticated computer programs to scan Medicare and Medicaid billing data for patterns of bogus claims. The auditors would get to keep part of any funds they recover for the government."

And another hassle for honest providers to contend with... defending against the likelihood of being falsely accused by corporate "bounty hunters" with a financial incentive to question medical decisions and see what "sticks". Look for even more of the best providers to dump Medicare/Medicaid patients. Fraud and abuse... the last bastion of a demagogue politician who is determined to deflect attention away from the real issues.

Now if he had proposed a swarm of private auditors armed with sophisticated computer programs to scan corporate insurance company DENIALS for patterns of fraud and abuse, and the auditors would get to keep part of any newly legislated FINES that are collected, that's something I could have become excited about. But no. That would require a president who works for us.

He seldom fails to underwhelm.

[AllentownJake]

15. This has always been a program

I worked at an accounting firm that had a division that did this.

The law has always allowed people to bring suit if they find anything and share in the recovery.

[saigon68]

16. He's well on his way to 1 term

[pundaint]

11. If they wont charge the loudly confessed war criminal Cheney, or not renew the

criminally negligent Haliburton's contracts, what will they do to a helthcare fraud perp? A system of laws enforced differently for different station is no rule of law at all, and Obama has not enforced any that I can see in his role as leader of the executive branch. Except for the medical MJ laws that he told us he would not enforce, and the the political prosecution of Don Seigleman for being a Democrat. If Obama says it, you absolutely, positively, for sure know it may or may not happen.

[suzie]

18. What exactly do you propose that they charge Cheney with?

Medicare fraud is pretty easy to prove with audits and computers. And it's pretty easy to understand--either you treated someone or you didn't.

A little more difficult to convince a jury that the former Vice-President deliberately broke the law in an area that's very complicated to understand and when everyone around him lies to coverup for him.

But, gosh, it's such a good sounding talking point, "They won't prosecute war criminals."

[cornermouse]

12. Don't be ridiculous.

This isn't about fraud. This is how they plan to cut medicare and medicaid. They hire people, without education in that area, to go through charts, point a finger at a charge and say it was incorrectly billed and paid for even thought it wasn't and then they reach into the bank account associated with the caregiver to take money out. The care provider can then either decide the cost of fighting the removal of money is more than the money they could recover or to cut their losses and give up.

[JoeyT]

13. +1

A backdoor attack on social programs is what this boils down to.

[AllentownJake]

14. This has always been a program

This is nothing new, everyone in Health Care is aware of it. There are entire firms that just do coding analysis.

[AngryAmish]

17. 1. All billing records of medicare providers should be public

2. Change qui tam laws to allow 1/3 recovery of those who find fraud.

3. for lawyers = profit. For providers that cheat, a nightmare.

[w4rma]

20. Hell yes!!! (nt)