The New York Times reported today that claims by Medicare officials of a reduction in payments for fraudulent medical expenses may have been, well, fraudulent. The Times has gotten hold of a confidential report from federal investigators indicating Medicare officials misled. Said the Times’ article:
“In calculating the agency’s rate of improper payments, Medicare officials told outside auditors to ignore government policies that would have accurately measured fraud, according to the report. For example, auditors were told not to compare invoices from salespeople against doctors’ records, as required by law, to make sure that medical equipment went to actual patients.
“As a result, Medicare did not detect that more than one-third of spending for wheelchairs, oxygen supplies and other medical equipment in its 2006 fiscal year was improper, according to the report. Based on data in other Medicare reports, that would be about $2.8 billion in improper spending.
“That same year, Medicare officials told Congress that they had succeeded in driving down the cost of fraud in medical equipment to $700 million.”
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