Latest Medicare fraud Stories
Many Businesses Cite Access Problems for Medicare Beneficiaries WASHINGTON, April 11, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A survey of home medical equipment companies released today found that many businesses providing power wheelchairs to Medicare beneficiaries have made abrupt changes in their operations to comply with new federal policies. But the regulatory changes have made it difficult for some businesses to provide quality products and service to Medicare patients. The American...
Hundreds of Patients and Providers Report Problems with the Program LANSING, Mich., April 6, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Michigan's providers of home-based care are asking Congress to pass a bipartisan bill to repeal Medicare's "competitive" bidding program for home medical equipment and services. The controversial bidding program is scheduled to start up later this year in three metropolitan areas in the state - Detroit-Warren-Livonia, Grand Rapids-Wyoming, and Flint. The program...
WASHINGTON, April 4, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- A whistleblower lawsuit sparked a federal investigation into the billing practices of Rex Hospital that has resulted in the Raleigh, North Carolina, hospital paying the federal government $1.9 million to settle Medicare fraud charges. The "qui tam" lawsuit alleged a number of hospitals were keeping Medicare patients overnight unnecessarily following a back procedure known as "kyphoplasty" as a way to boost Medicare revenues when the procedure often...
ORLANDO, Fla., Feb. 25, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Medicare beneficiaries are reporting problems receiving required home medical equipment and services in the wake of the January 1, 2011 implementation of Medicare's controversial "competitive" bidding program in Miami and Orlando, according to the American Association for Homecare. The program will affect many of the more than one million seniors and people living with disabilities in Miami and Orlando who are enrolled in Medicare. The...
TUCSON, Ariz., Feb. 21, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In what officials call the "largest-ever federal healthcare fraud takedown," 700 federal agents rounded up more than 100 suspects in a nationwide sweep of arrests on Feb 17. Television news showed armed FBI agents in bullet-proof vests hauling off a doctor and staff members in handcuffs. Such raids are not new. In the past, patients have reportedly been lined up against the wall by agents with unholstered guns, and in one instance a...
WASHINGTON, Feb. 10, 2011/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- As the Obama administration embarks on improving the efficiency of government agencies, attention must be focused on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS) supervision of the Medicare power mobility benefit. The White House would be hard pressed to find a government operation more outdated, mismanaged and wasteful of taxpayer dollars. In fact, recent audits by the government's own contractors demonstrate the extent to...
DALLAS, Feb. 8, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Medicare beneficiaries are reporting problems receiving medically required home medical equipment and services following the January 1, 2011 implementation of Medicare's new "competitive" bidding program in nine regions across the U.S., including the Dallas-Fort Worth area, where 565,000 Medicare beneficiaries live. The bidding program is scheduled to start up in an additional 91 areas later this year including six metropolitan areas in Texas...
WASHINGTON, Feb. 2., 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- After the January 1 implementation of Medicare's controversial "competitive" bidding program in nine regions across the U.S., Medicare patients are reporting problems receiving home medical equipment and services that were prescribed by their physicians. The bidding program was implemented on January 1 in nine metropolitan regions: Charlotte, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dallas-Fort Worth, Kansas City, Miami, Orlando, Pittsburgh, and...
The Nursing Home Complaint Center is one of the most quoted sources in the United States on nursing homes, and Medicare, or Medicaid fraud, or over billing. As part of its 2011 Medicare, and Medicaid whistle blowers initiative the group is encouraging all current nursing home accounting, or coding staff to step forward, if they possess significant proof related to a nursing home, a hospital, a rehab facility, or a long term care facility over billing, or defrauding the federal, or state...
Joint DOJ & HHSÂ efforts result in largest sum ever recovered in single year; new rules under the Affordable Care Act will keep fraudulent providers and suppliers out of Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP and avoid payments of fraudulent claimsU.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and U.S. Associate Attorney General Thomas J. Perrelli today announced a new report showing that the government's health care fraud prevention and enforcement efforts recovered...
