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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neeka who wrote (435304)	7/13/2011 4:01:30 AM
From: KLP	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793974

S & L: Feds Lack System To Catch Medicare Fraud From a seemingly surprised Associated Press: Report: Systems to catch Medicaid fraud inadequate By KELLI KENNEDY – Associated Press July 12, 2011 MIAMI (AP) — The federal government’s systems for analyzing Medicare and Medicaid data for possible fraud are inadequate and underused, making it more difficult to detect the billions of dollars in fraudulent claims paid out each year, according to a report released Tuesday. And yet Mr. Obama told us back in March of 2010 that his crackdown on Medicare and Medicaid fraud was going to save billions of dollars. In fact, Obama has claimed for years that the savings from ending fraud would go a long way towards paying for his healthcare ‘reforms.’ The Government Accountability Office report said the systems don’t even include Medicaid data. Details, details. And never mind that the Medicaid is practically as large as Medicare these days. Furthermore, 639 analysts were supposed to have been trained to use the system — yet only 41 have been so far, it said. These sure sound like ‘shovel ready’ jobs. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services — which administer the taxpayer-funded health care programs for the elderly, poor and disabled — lacks plans to finish the systems projected to save $21 billion. The technology is crucial to making a dent in the $60 billion to $90 billion in fraudulent claims paid out each year… According to the Obama White House, there were (only) $54 billion dollars in improper Medicare/Medicaid payments in 2009. So the numbers have actually gone up under Mr. Obama, despite all of his promises about cracking down on fraud. Funny how the AP doesn’t mention that. The current antiquated database is a piecemeal system with data stored in disparate systems, meaning employees don’t have access to all data from all programs. Each state has its own systems with very limited access to Medicare or national Medicaid data. But CMS does not have set plans to share access with the states, despite an earlier commitment to do so starting in 2010, according to the report. The new $150 million systems, which went live in 2009, are intended be a one-stop storage for all data, accessible by all CMS staff and its contractors, law enforcement and state agencies. But crucial pieces are still missing — including so-called "share systems data" that would help analysts identify and prevent payment of fraudulent claims, according to the report. The agency planned to include this by 2008, but funding for the software to implement the system was delayed. CMS is now aiming for November 2011, the report said… How can funding for this have been delayed for the last three years when this was one of Mr. Obama’s top priorities and the Democrats had complete control of Congress? They can’t blame Bush for this. Still, just wait until these same bureaucrats have complete control of your healthcare under Obama-care. sweetness-light.com