Thirty-two physicians and executives have been indicted for schemes to submit more than $16 million in false Medicare claims, the federal government said, in the latest step to root out fraud in the government-run health-care program.A month ago, 61 people were indicted for allegedly submitting more than $150 million in false claims.
Medicare fraud has long been a criticism of the program, with its size in part a factor in the ability to “game the system.” More than $800 billion is spent annually on Medicare and Medicaid, the joint federal-state program for the poor, and by some estimates more than $60 billion each year is lost to fraud.
Talk to cops who catch petty thieves, or ask some teens about them or their friends that shop lift, or people you know that help themselves to their employer’s inventory and what you’ll find is excuses of why their activities weren’t really stealing. The company or store is “so big” they’ll never “miss it” is the usual line. For the petty thief, there are no real people behind that store, just a “corporation” that deserves no respect of property rights.
The bigger the entity, the more faceless it is, the easier the temptation to justify cheating.
Then add to that mix a sense of entitlement. If you want to see people who abuse the medical system as it currently exists look no further then the fraud above or the attitude of people who believe healthcare is “a right” and use 911 to summon ambulances to their homes as kind of personal taxis.
On Wednesday, 2 on Your Side told you about Scott Graham, who admits to using an ambulance as a glorified taxi cab service. Taxpayers pick up his “fare” each time he calls for an ambulance.“I’d say about a thousand times,” Graham told 2 On Your Side about the number of times he estimates an ambulance has picked him up over the past few years. He suffers from sickle cell anemia, a painful blood disorder. He says he requests an ambulance because he can’t see his doctor as much as he needs.
A 2 On Your Side investigation found the county picked up him at least 603 times from 2006 to May of this year. Medicaid picked up the tab for each ride, which cost taxpayers more than $118,000 dollars. It’s all legal, and the ambulance service can’t refuse his requests.
The years my daughter was a paramedic she witnessed it over and over again — people who believe they are “owed” and who just do not care that it is their neighbor paying for them.
The Obama/Pelosi/Reid drumbeat that people shouldn’t be personally responsible for their own medical care, that healthcare is a “right” and that doctors, nurses, lab techs, researchers, ems personnel, et al, are not ‘real people’ deserving of any consideration is only going to further spread the kind of dismissive “do you know who you are talking to?” attitude already prevalent among the entitled.
And cost to the taxpayers? That they are going to go down is one of the biggest lies of the fascist Progressives yet.
Comment by McGehee on 7/31 @ 8:18 am #
God or no God, this chronic and rampant defiance of the Tenth Commandment will be the death of America.
Comment by Joe on 7/31 @ 8:29 am #
Romney?
Comment by Joe on 7/31 @ 8:35 am #
Darleen is correct, there is a huge minority of people out there who think they are “owed” all kinds of government benefits. And that is the trouble when the lowest earning 40% pay no federal taxes and assume that the rest of us will pay their way. You can only milk the top 1% so much before it becomes counter productive, and we are already past that point. Because what Marx and the Democrats don’t get is that “surplus wealth” is the capitol that gets reinvested back into the economy.
Comment by KingShamus on 7/31 @ 8:37 am #
“Talk to cops who catch petty thieves, or ask some teens about them or their friends that shop lift, or people you know that help themselves to their employer’s inventory and what you’ll find is excuses of why their activities weren’t really stealing. The company or store is “so big” they’ll never “miss it” is the usual line. For the petty thief, there are no real people behind that store, just a “corporation” that deserves no respect of property rights.”
Great point.
The bigger and more intrusive you make government, the more prone it is to corruption-that rule never dawns on liberals. They seem to think that their systems and government apparatchik positions will be manned by angels.
As you’ve pointed out, this will not be the case.
Comment by Serr8d on 7/31 @ 8:50 am #
Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan schools a proto-marxist at MSNBC.
Comment by SBP on 7/31 @ 8:56 am #
The bigger the entity, the more faceless it is, the easier the temptation to justify cheating.
Welcome to the Monkeysphere.
Comment by happyfeet on 7/31 @ 9:02 am #
I’m down. Gimme some dirty socialist government health care and I’ll abuse the shit out of it and then go take a shower and come back and abuse the shit out of it some more.
Bitch better have my money I think.
Comment by Bob Reed on 7/31 @ 9:12 am #
Benjamin Franklin quote: “When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic”
Ol’ Ben was pretty smart, for an old white guy…
I needn’t say more…
Comment by Bob Reed on 7/31 @ 9:17 am #
VDH on the lecturing of America by our “betters” in our political aristocracy…
http://article.nationalreview.com/print/?q=MTNhZWZkMGQyYzc5YWY3NTExY2VlYmFjYjkyYWM3MmM=
Good read, and appropriate for the whole Obamacare discussion, since none of them will have to subject themselves to the shattered system that it leaves for us hoi polloi…
Comment by geoffb on 7/31 @ 9:27 am #
Almost that. They know that they, the lovers of big government, the lovers of the worship services called committee meetings, will be the ones manning the positions. And they know that they are all, by definition, wonderful, caring, and oh so much smarter than those they rule over. Yes they are in their own minds “angels” of their “lord” who art in White House. Hollow is his name.
Comment by JohnAnnArbor on 7/31 @ 9:29 am #
My grandfather, who was an accountant, noticed an oddity when he was in the hospital. On Saturdays, doctors he never saw before and who never stopped by again would come in, ask a few questions, write something on his chart, and walk out. He took a look at his bill afterwards. (Normally, there’d be no reason to do this, since Medicare and his prior employers covered almost everything. This was the 1990s.) He saw that these doctors were basically doing drive-by consulting, charging a fee to do almost nothing and contribute nothing. He figured some doctors were making good money each Saturday “consulting” on random patients for an hour or two.
In short, obvious fraud, if anyone was interested in rooting it out. But no.
Then there are all the ads on TV advertising “free scooters” for the elderly. Obvious overbilling opportunity; obvious way of giving them to people who may not need them.
Comment by Old Texas Turkey on 7/31 @ 9:48 am #
When cost overrun budget projections, you get rationing. When you get rationing, you get:
This civic republican or deliberative democratic conception of the good provides both procedural and substantive insights for developing a just allocation of health care resources. Procedurally, it suggests the need for public forums to deliberate about which health services should be considered basic and should be socially guaranteed. Substantively, it suggests services that promote the continuation of the polity; those that ensure healthy future generations, ensure development of practical reasoning skills, and ensure full and active participation by citizens in public deliberations-are to be socially guaranteed as basic. Conversely, services provided to individuals who are irreversibly prevented from being or becoming participating citizens are not basic and should not be guaranteed. An obvious example is not guaranteeing health services to patients with dementia. A less obvious example Is is guaranteeing neuropsychological services to ensure children with learning disabilities can read and learn to reason.
http://tinyurl.com/l3knuk
(Cough)
Comment by geoffb on 7/31 @ 10:01 am #
John A2,
I noticed something like that on a bill my wife got. It had been denied payment by her healthcare and so they billed us directly. I didn’t recognize the “doctor” as one of hers. It was a psychologist. He came in one day and asked “How are you doing”, she said “I’m fine”, he left. Got a bill for $125. I questioned it and got it dropped.
Comment by N. O'Brain on 7/31 @ 10:22 am #
HA!
My wife was hit by a car walking across the street.
Medivaced from the suburbs where the accident happened to downtown Phila.
$10,000.
She was in the hospital for 2 weeks before they pretty much kicked her out as there wasn’t a lot more they could do for her.
We got a copy of the bill.
$350,000.
Comment by Joe on 7/31 @ 10:32 am #
N.O. Brain, did you ever find out who hit your wife? Who is going to pay that $350K bill-your insurance company or the driver’s?
Comment by Salt Lick on 7/31 @ 11:00 am #
Paul Krugman shoots off own testicle in health care debate.
Comment by peter jackson on 7/31 @ 11:19 am #
Excellent post thoroughly making an excellent point that is being completely ignored elsewhere.
Comment by Danger on 7/31 @ 11:25 am #
Ol’ Ben was pretty smart, for a classic white guy…
FTFY Bob;)
Comment by Bob Reed on 7/31 @ 11:53 am #
Thanks Danger,
I was just slipping in a little subtle snark for any trolls that might take issue with that quote later…
Be Cool!
Comment by bastiches on 7/31 @ 12:04 pm #
Ol’ Ben was pretty smart, for an old white guy… I needn’t say more…
Well you could because he never said it. Neither did Maggy Thatcher or Twain or Toynbee. The original quotee seems to be lost to history.
“The truth is that despite their frequent use, the above text actually has its origins in two separate and independent quotes, and the author of the first half is, to date, unknown. With regard to the first quoted paragraph, the Library of Congress’ Respectfully Quoted writes, “Attributed to ALEXANDER FRASER TYTLER, LORD WOODHOUSELEE. Unverified.” The quote, however, appears in no published work of Tytler’s. And with regard to the second, the same book says “Author unknown. Attributed to Benjamin Disraeli. Unverified.” “
Comment by geoffb on 7/31 @ 12:14 pm #
This must cease. Protests are to be expected and were done in a fine fashion for the last 8 years but now we have mobs. And mobs can and will do violence to the innocent, humble, public servants.
This shall not stand. This is unconstitutional badgering of our lonely hardworking elite. They need bodyguards. They need the New Black Panthers and ACORN to set things to rights.
Comment by Danger on 7/31 @ 12:32 pm #
The Hammer lays down his bet:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/30/AR2009073002819.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns
Hopefully he is correct.
Comment by happyfeet on 7/31 @ 12:56 pm #
Dirty socialists can’t help but be self-righteous but the Iowa ones are some of the smarmiest I think.
Comment by Bob Reed on 7/31 @ 12:56 pm #
Well thanks for setting me straight bastiches. I’ve always seen that quote attributed to Franklin…
Here’s another good one
http://thinkexist.com/quotation/the_american_republic_will_endure_until_the_day/191338.html
“The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.”
-Alexis De Tocqville
Comment by David R. Block on 7/31 @ 1:30 pm #
The size of this legislation means that it starts as an incomprehensible pile of verbal smog. Like most lawyer-eze. And that’s being kind.
I mean really, 1018 pages? War and Peace is envious. Try to find a copy of the Senate version or the Blue Dog comprimise and good luck. All I have been able to get is the original HR 3000 version, and that thing stinks.
Comment by geoffb on 7/31 @ 1:34 pm #
On the “Hammer” piece. I take exception to this.
Since the lead “boomers” are now poised to enter Medicare next year, they have not yet received this transfer. The transfers that have taken place over my lifetime, I’m a 61 year old “boomer”, have been from the “boomers” to the generations born from 1900 to 1944.
I have always expected that by the time my generation got to the “golden years” the Ponzi schemes would be in their death throws. The 15% on my income that has been extracted from me over the course of the years since the 1980’s compromise to “save” Social Security would have made for a comfortable retirement nest egg by now but it is instead to be found as an unmarketable IOU in a file cabinet in West Virginia.
May the Democrats who foisted this travesty on us and those who blocked all efforts at reforming it rot in hell.
Comment by geoffb on 7/31 @ 1:39 pm #
Software companies will be going over the Obama era legislation to craft new ideas for their end-user license agreements.
Comment by SBP on 7/31 @ 1:41 pm #
Something else Franklin said — when asked by a passerby what form of government the Constitutional Convention had decided on, Franklin replied “A republic, if you can keep it.”
Comment by JohnAnnArbor on 7/31 @ 1:49 pm #
Let’s start a new political party which pledges that no officeholder will be a lawyer. Lawyers can be assistants, etc. but no candidate for office will be a lawyer.
We need politicians who want to SOLVE problems. That would draw from occupations like engineers, scientists, doctors, tradesmen. Lawyers are paid not to solve problems, but to push one side of a problem at all costs.
Comment by LTC John on 7/31 @ 1:53 pm #
#29 – so no prosecutors or tort defense bar?
Comment by JohnAnnArbor on 7/31 @ 1:58 pm #
For legislators was my point. Laws are now written by lawyers for lawyers and it’s a toxic combination (“Oh, we’ll help you understand the new law–for $400 an hour.”).
Comment by Makewi on 7/31 @ 2:01 pm #
Eh, I’m less and less convinced that the problem is merely lawyers. I’d have to say the general public that asks/convinces them to do what they do is equally to blame. I mean a lawyer is the one who actually sues McDonalds for the spilled coffee being to hot, but it’s the entitled client who gets that ball rolling.
Comment by Makewi on 7/31 @ 2:01 pm #
to hot, being moronese for too hot.
Comment by dicentra on 7/31 @ 2:07 pm #
Laws are now written by lawyers for lawyers and it’s a toxic combination
Written by lawyers for Big Lobby, that is. Our own legislators don’t do the heavy lifting: all the detailing is offloaded to the “helpful” assistants that write the legislation that will favor them and tear down their “enemies.”
Comment by Makewi on 7/31 @ 2:09 pm #
There is related issue, which according to various fictional tv shows I have seen is a major problem. Sometimes doctors are FORCED to defraud the government by fraudulently billing medicare because medicare, being run by classic government brilliance, doesn’t pay enough to even cover the costs of some things.
Comment by dicentra on 7/31 @ 2:22 pm #
medicare, being run by classic government brilliance, doesn’t pay enough to even cover the costs of some things.
Hewitt was interviewing doctors yesterday, and they would quote their Medicare compensation rates for 30 years ago vs. now. It’s about half now what it was. So they overcharge the private insurance etc. just to stay afloat.
Comment by dicentra on 7/31 @ 2:24 pm #
God or no God, this chronic and rampant defiance of the Tenth Commandment will be the death of America.
I’d be happy if they’d just comply with the Tenth Amendment.
Comment by B Moe on 7/31 @ 3:05 pm #
The problem is our government, and by extension our society, has become utterly corrupt. It has come to function totally around stealing from 49% to buy votes of 51%. The cover occupation of the thieves, or how long they are allowed to actively steal, really doesn’t address the core of the problem, which is they are fucking thieves and half the population is aiding and abetting the crime.
Such an utterly immoral society cannot exist for long, I don’t think.
Comment by dicentra on 7/31 @ 3:51 pm #
Such an utterly immoral society cannot exist for long, I don’t think.
I was just thinking yesterday how much the world would change if only ONE virtue were applied perfectly: honesty. No lying, no fraud, no cover-ups, no spinning, no deception whatsoever.
Imagine!
Comment by geoffb on 7/31 @ 4:43 pm #
I had a business class back in the 70’s. The instructor mentioned the latest “tax reform” bill and called it “The Lawyers and Accountants Relief Act of 197*” The bills were passed so no one in the wealthier classes and businesses could figure out their taxes without help.
Comment by Joe on 7/31 @ 5:23 pm #
Darleen, if Obama says it is so, it must be so!
Comment by Joe on 7/31 @ 5:36 pm #
Some are born to help…
Comment by newrouter on 7/31 @ 5:44 pm #
don’t talk back to the O!
Here’s a close up of the secret service vehicle with the guns drawn on the protesters:
Comment by Carin on 7/31 @ 6:52 pm #
Haven’t read all the comments, but I think the whole “healthcare shouldn’t cost anything” issue comes down to the strange idea that absolutely no ONE should “profit” from healthcare. I heard people say such things, although they target the health care industry.
Well … what is profit, but someone’s wage. Really.
Cut to the quick, these folks think that doctors and nurses should simply work for the benefit of mankind. All the other dressing-up of the issue is just a cover. Because, economically speaking – a world where everyone could get whatever medical care they needed for themself w/o little expense – that will only happen when doctors and nurses work for very little money. New, very expensive treatments will always exist. People will always feel they have a right to whatever.
I’ve been at work all day, and had a couplaglassesofwine … so I’m not the most articulate. Perhaps someone else can put these better.
Comment by happyfeet on 7/31 @ 7:04 pm #
It’s cause it’s like that on Star Trek, Carin. I swear to God they really are that gay.
Comment by Spiny Norman on 7/31 @ 7:18 pm #
#43 newrouter,
As was noted in the Gateway Pundit comments, apparently that’s the Counter Assault Team and they are ALWAYS like that, with “guns drawn”.
Comment by newrouter on 7/31 @ 7:23 pm #
funny no moonbat organization called attention to this during the bush regime
Comment by newrouter on 7/31 @ 7:27 pm #
“healthcare shouldn’t cost anything”
neither should auto care or day care or msm care all like medicare or maybe just CAIR but with hussein as president we can say allah ackbar and pbuh
Comment by newrouter on 7/31 @ 7:29 pm #
yea gwb drove near cindy sheehan’s compound in crawford with the ss having their guns drawn? don’t buy it
Comment by newrouter on 7/31 @ 7:31 pm #
this picture tells me everything about this fraud
Comment by SBP on 7/31 @ 7:40 pm #
“Healthcare shouldn’t cost anything”
I’m still waiting for my free gas.
Pingback by Must have been above his pay grade [Darleen Click] on 7/31 @ 7:44 pm #
[...] Ace) ************************ UPDATE: newrouter found the same pic at American Thinker As some AT commentators point out, this picture becomes a [...]
Comment by Spiny Norman on 7/31 @ 7:48 pm #
#49 newrouter,
Maybe you should read the comments at your own link. You may wish to reconsider.
Comment by Makewi on 7/31 @ 7:51 pm #
Carin
The “it needs to be free train” can’t end with just the doctors and nurses providing their services for free, because the health care providers need things in order to practice their craft, so the manufacturers of those things would presumably need to provide them for free. They need a place to provide the care, so presumably the land and buildings would need to be donated, as well as the electricity to power it, the water hookups it would need, the gas lines if needed, the sewage and refuse, etc. Not to mention that all of the things that health care providers would normally pay for in a life would need to be donated to them.
Comment by newrouter on 7/31 @ 8:43 pm #
sorry if bush had his ss troops pointing guns at moonbats we would have heard of it. the comments from axelrod clones are worthless.
Comment by newrouter on 7/31 @ 8:50 pm #
the stupid f@@ks on the left botched the danratherbushmemo and you want me to believe that FASCISTBUSHHADSSGAURDSPOINTINGRIFLESATCITIZENS wasn’t on OLBY? yea right
Comment by B Moe on 7/31 @ 9:17 pm #
I am with newrouter. If any of those patriotic dissenters had even glimpsed a gun we would be hearing about it for the next ten years.
Comment by geoffb on 8/1 @ 12:19 am #
Comment spam that fits into Obama care.
Ththththththat’s all folks
Comment by Matt on 8/1 @ 8:41 am #
Before crushing our economy under “ObamaCare” perhaps the messiah and his minions should sprinkle some of their magic “antifraud” pixie dust on Medicare and Medicaid. Obviously, since the gubbermint has had 40 years to fix the rampant fraud in these and couldn’t, I have to assume that the messiah has something magical to eliminate fraud from his plan, doesn’t he?
Comment by SporkLift Driver on 8/1 @ 11:33 am #
That was beautiful Darleen, especially the second to last paragraph. Wonderful comments. How do we get away from the entitlement mentality without going through hell first? Wish I or someone had an answer.
Comment by Neo on 8/2 @ 2:20 pm #
This is going to leave a mark …