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About Fraud in Medicare and Medicaid - MarketWatch
Seeking fraud and eliminating government waste seem to be popular buzz words today, and the primary targets on the potential fraud list are Medicare and Medicaid. Indeed, the U.S. Government Accountability Office recently suggested that the federal government loses between $233 billion and $521 billion annually to fraud. Extrapolating from that estimate, its likely that upwards of $125 billion per year is lost on the nation’s healthcare programs, predominantly Medicare and Medicaid. And eliminating that fraud could help pay for some of the tax abatement suggestions being discussed in Washington, D.C. these days.
Having said that, it’s obvious that bipartisan cooperation will be needed to eliminate Medicare and Medicaid fraud and waste – and that cooperation seems to be sorely lacking in the present Congress. Largely along party lines, Democrats are united in their opposition to any cuts in either Medicare or Medicaid, while Republicans seek to streamline the programs by eliminating fraudulent activities. In the end, it may come down to how the States fund their programs, with payments to healthcare companies for Medicaid and Medicare services. This MarketWatch article by Chris Matthews explains.