Federal authorities said Tuesday they've broken up a $1.2 billion Medicare scam that peddled unneeded orthopedic braces to hundreds of thousands of seniors via foreign call centers.
Medicare's anti-fraud unit said it's taking action against 130 medical equipment companies implicated. They billed the program a total of $1.7 billion, of which more than $900 million was paid out. "The telemedicine we are talking about is basically a tele-scam," said Gary Cantrell, who oversees fraud investigations for the HHS inspector general's office."We are not talking about the use of advanced technology to provide better access to care."
The scam was detected last summer, officials said. Complaints from beneficiaries were pouring in to the Medicare fraud hotline, and some consumer news organizations warned seniors. As the investigation progressed, Cantrell said, federal agents gained cooperation from people familiar with the various schemes.
Health care fraud is a pervasive problem that costs taxpayers tens of billions of dollars a year. The true extent of it is unknown, and some cases involve gray areas of complex payment policies.
These scammers are still at it, i was contacted last week and unfortunately didn't realize it was a scam until after i gave them info, now i can't get a hold of anyone to help me with this, no FTC, bank on vacation no VM option. No could warn Medicare beneficiaries via net?
Now, if Feds can just break up all the money laundering through shell corporations.
We need more news like this. Everybody knows 90% 'pain clinics' is just organized drug dealers that hired doctors to avoid going to jail, but government will not go after this.
DOJ can investigate these crimes & make charges, yet America has seen/heard trump's obstruction, calling on russia to HACK AMERICA, made pay-offs to porno/ playmates for his extra marital sexual affairs, deemed UNINDICTED CO-CONSPIRATOR, etc etc etc - IMPEACHMENT SOUNDS GOOD!
My mom has been getting these calls. Hope that means they'll stop.
that was obvious a year ago from all the commercials on tv
See, I always wonder about those late night ads that begin with 'Do you hold a Medicare card? Then you may qualify.' People order whether they need it or not, no charge, but the govt pays plenty for each, I'm sure. The product is usually just an elastic sleeve.