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Saturday, June 20, 2015

Evil "ObamaCare" breaking up Network of Medicare Crooks, saving taxpayers billions.

Republicans have almost always taken the wrong side of everything. The Affordable Care Act is the latest example.

The ACA has slowed the growth of insurance premiums, forced the system to change how care is paid for, created a marketplace and competition between private businesses, paid for itself while providing subsidies to lower premiums based on income. It would be a whole lot better if insurers were taken out of the equation completely, but we’ll just have to wait for that.

One more thing; it appears “ObamaCare” also built a much better way to catch Medicare fraud. But I’m sure Republicans don’t care about that either, right?
How record Medicare fraud bust could give a boost to Obamacare: More than 240 people have been arrested in a nationwide sweep for allegedly submitting $712 million in false billings.

The Justice Department’s Medicare Fraud Strike Force has now charged more than 2,300 people with falsely billing more than $7 billion to Medicare since 2007, according to Reuters.
 
A provision of the Affordable Care Act is to provide an additional $340 million in anti-fraud funding over 10 years, according to NPR. Health officials view the extra money as an investment in health-care reform. With increased resources from the Affordable Care Act, HHS is investing in new tools to stop fraud before it happens, including a capacity to screen out questionable providers or suppliers. 
Sorry Republicans, the fraudsters weren't those vilified poor seniors showing off their AARP cards everywhere, they were medical professionals ripping the system off to stuff their pockets:
HHS Sec. Sylvia Burwell
Around the country, the schemes have morphed ... Now, officials say, the schemes involve a sophisticated network of doctors, clinic owners, patients and patient recruiters. Violent criminals and mobsters are also tapping into the scams ... agents bugged a medical center in Brooklyn, N.Y., where eight people are charged with running a $50 million scam that submitted bogus claims for physical therapy. Clinic owners paid patients, including undercover agents, in exchange for using their Medicare numbers and a bonus fee for recruiting new patients. Recording devices captured hundreds of kickback payments in a private room where a man sat at a table and did nothing but pay patients all day, authorities said.

In Dallas, six owners of a physician house-call company face charges for allegedly submitting nearly $43 million in billings under the name of a single doctor ... Several doctors and nurses were among those arrested in Miami, New York City, Detroit, Houston and Baton Rouge, La., accused of billing Medicare for unnecessary equipment and treatments that patients typically never received.
Civilian scammers came out of the woodwork too. 
In a separate Brooklyn case, authorities indicted six patients who shopped their Medicare numbers to various clinics. More than 3,744 claims were submitted on behalf of one woman in the past six years. The patients did not receive the services billed to Medicare, authorities said.

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