Citing egregious examples of DME Medicare fraud —
including one supposed provider who used taxpayer money to buy a
Rolls Royce — CMS has announced a massive anti-fraud
demonstration program for 7,700 providers in the Los Angeles and
Miami metro areas. The agency said each provider would be mailed a
notice to reapply for Medicare billing privileges. They can also
expect multiple unannounced site visits. The pilot will run for two
years, and could expand to other parts of the country. Industry
reaction: What took you so long, CMS?
$37.2 billion
Cost to the U.S. in 2004 for COPD, including $20.9 billion in
health care expenditures, $7.4 billion in indirect morbidity costs
and $8.9 billion in indirect mortality costs.
Source: American Lung Association
“ Medicare and its private contractors have failed to
shoulder the proper responsibility to effectively exercise their
already-existing authority to combat fraudulent activity. They must
insist on standards and other up-front controls that will deny
illegitimate operators any chance of taking advantage of Medicare
…”
— The American Association for Homecare, in an open
letter to Congress in popular Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call. The
June letter charged that the government has not done its job in
curbing DME fraud and that providers need “clear, up-to-date
and fair federal regulations that effectively target fraud and
abuse but at the same time do not unduly burden those companies
that make every effort to follow the rules.”
$350 billion
Value of informal care provided by family caregivers in 2006,
an amount equivalent to total expenditures for the Medicare program
in 2005 ($342 billion) and larger than the total U.S. budget
deficit last year ($248 billion).
Source: AARP Public Policy Institute
$21 million
Amount CMS overpaid in improper claims for negative wound
therapy pumps and accessories in 2004. A review was initiated after
claims shot up by 444 percent between 2001 and 2005, from $25
million to $136 million.
Source: HHS Office of Inspector General
