No. of Recommendations: 2
This is for the "Medicare for all" crowd and one *very big* reason why I'm dead set against it.
foxnews.com - Los angeles hospice fraud reaches billions medicare providers scam federal system fake companiesLos Angeles hospice fraud reaches billions as Medicare providers scam federal system with fake companies
Medicare chief says fraudulent providers scam taxpayers with ghost patients and sham companies in scheme involving corrupt doctorsNow imagine this covering ALL healthcare in the country. No thanks.
Ghost patients, sham companies, offshore owners and corrupt doctors. Auditors and prosecutors say hospice fraud in Los Angeles is off the charts, with providers scamming billions from taxpayers for patients that don't exist, poor care and no care.
"Hospice is crazy here," says Dr. Mehmet Oz, head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
"You've got hospice that's grown seven-fold in the last five years. They represent about three and a half billion dollars of fraud, we believe, just in LA County."But clearly this is a made up thing, right? Just another Fox News lie?
Backing him up was California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who said last year, "Hospice fraud has become an epidemic in California, specifically in the greater Los Angeles area."
Bonta says fraudulent providers submit false claims for unnecessary services, and recruiters get kickbacks for signing up seniors, whether they're sick or not. Hospices also enroll patients who don't even know they've been scammed until they seek out medical care.Guess not.
How much fraud are we talking?
"A Medicare MIB number is more lucrative than a credit card," says Sheila Clark, president of the California Hospice and Palliative Care Association, referring to the 11 character code each Medicare recipient has that allows federal reimbursement. "They're human traffickers. They're trafficking beneficiaries in and out of hospices, home health."
LA County alone has 1,923 hospice providers. That's more than 36 states combined and 33 times more than either Florida's 58 cents or New York's 40, even though LA has hundreds of thousands of fewer seniors.Whoa.
"Eighteen percent of the whole country's home health care billing is coming out of Los Angeles County," says Oz. "How is that possible?"How, indeed.
