PrintOctober 26, 2009
Medicare Fraud - $60 Billion and Growing
60 Minutes has an excellent report on Medicare Fraud.
Steve Kroft traveled South Florida with the FBI to investigate fraudulent medical equipment suppliers and fake self-storage garage pharmacies collecting millions of dollars per month from Medicare and then disappearing quickly.
Several interesting facts: Medicare has 3 investigators for the state of Florida; however a convicted criminal states that there are over 2000 people in the Miami area alone participating in Medicare fraud.
The woman in charge of enforcement at Medicare makes the lame excuse that their enforcement budget is too small.
The criminals have left drug dealing because Medicare fraud is easier, less dangerous, offers shorter prison terms if convicted, and is way more profitable.
This fraud casts serious doubt on the government's ability to run any program that doles out lots of cash.
