Today, the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services (HHS) released an updated annual report showing that, for the second year in a row, anti-fraud efforts have recovered more than $4.1 billion in fraudulent Medicare payments. Compare this to just $2.14 billion recovered in FY 2008. Prosecutions are way up too: the number of individuals charged…
Tag: medicare
CBO: Medicare Spending To Reach $1 Trillion By 2022
Outlays for Medicare, Medicaid and “other mandatory federal programs related to health care accounted for just under 40 percent of mandatory spending in 2011,” the Congressional Budget Office reported today and will continue to grow into the future. For instance, a boost in the number of beneficiaries will increase Medicare spending to more than $1…
Georgia lawmaker who sponsored welfare drug testing bill busted for DUI
A Georgia Republican who co-sponsored legislation that would require random drug testing of welfare recipients was arrested on early Friday morning and charged with DUI, according to Channel 2 Action News. Rep. Kip Smith was pulled over after a police officer witnessed him run through a red light. The officer said he could smell the…
New Data: Obamacare Extended Health Coverage To At Least 2.5 Million Young Adults
At least 2.5 million younger Americans now have health insurance as a result of a provision in the Affordable Care Act that allows adults to stay on their parents’ health care plans until 26 years of age, the Associated Press reports. The Obama administration is expected to release additional data later this afternoon: Using unpublished…
Berwick: Don’t Blame Medicare, Medicaid. It’s The Delivery System
Berwick said the 2010 federal health law is changing how doctors and hospitals are paid and deliver care though such new arrangements as accountable care organizations, which are designed to improve coordination and lower costs. But he said it is unclear whether such efforts would produce results quickly enough to hold off critics, including most…
Ron Pauls Charity: Libertarian Views Fail Reality Test
In Pauls opinion, high taxes and inflation deprive Americans of money that they would otherwise give to charity. Programs like Medicare, he says, brought about the demise of “voluntary charities and organizations, such as friendly societies, that devoted themselves to helping those in need” during the early 20th century. These civic groups, he claims, “flourished…
Andy Ostroy: You Bet It’s Class Warfare
Its called the “Millionaire’s Tax”, and it’s pure genius. Finally, President Obama and Democrats have caught on to the power and importance of branding. My God, it’s almost Rovian in its sheer simplicity and potential impact. The tax is a brilliant scheme by the president to achieve his goal of taxing the rich and creating…
Affordable Care Act is already working, Part III
Most of the provisions in the Affordable Care Act don’t kick in for a few years, but in the meantime, we’re already seeing indications that the law is working as intended. We talked yesterday about the fact that the number of young adults — those between the ages of 19 and 25 — with health…