Quote:
Originally Posted by Danzig
from a GAO article from a year ago"
GAO has designated Medicare and Medicaid as high-risk programs because they are particularly vulnerable to fraud, waste, abuse, and improper payments (payments that should not have been made or were made in an incorrect amount). Medicare is considered high-risk in part because of its complexity and susceptibility to improper payments, and Medicaid because of concerns about the adequacy of its fiscal oversight to prevent inappropriate spending. In fiscal year 2010, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)--the agency that administers Medicare and Medicaid--estimated that these programs made a total of over $70 billion in improper payments
70 billion improperly paid in one year alone. that is absolutely dreadful.
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It is, but they changed the definition of "improper", too:
Quote:
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According to the report, the Bush administration from 2005 to 2008 reported improper payments of about 4 percent in the fee-for-service program, or about $17 billion total in 2008. Government officials at the time, however, typically did not consider a Medicare payment improper if the medical documentation was incomplete or a doctor's signature was illegible.
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But now they do.
4% is too high, but that's not "rampant". That's 96% proper payments made. And other safeguards were put into the program in 2010. The ACA cuts $500 billion in 10 years in duplication.