Go After Fraud

Why cut back on Medicare Advantage alone when there are so many other ways to find fraud? When clinics, usually the larger ones who can hide in largely populated areas, can double bill, bill for deceased individuals or charge for unnecessary tests or tests that were not even performed; that's fraud. When doctors in small towns take advantage of the elderly, when clinics bill for patients who were never seen or when a patient who needs to be seen cannot be; that's immoral.

When a senior citizen or a disabled individual qualifies for Medicare it's hardly taking advantage of the system. In order to qualify, they had to earn the privilege, pay into it for a number of years and rely upon it, usually, as a last resort. A Medicare Advantage program would not be my choice but my mother-in-law is in one now and my late mother belonged to such a program. They have both been happy with the care they received. I find it hard to believe that cutting $113 billion from those particular programs are the whole answer.

If they are billing in a criminal manner, if patients are being neglected, abused or not treated in any program, clinic or hospital, then the government who is supposed to be overseeing medicare should do a better job. This whole health-care reform subject has been hijacked by headline seekers and poorly informed politicians who haven't a clue as to what to do. Everyone is running around trying to put out their fire of choice without gaining knowledge of the facts. Of course, many elderly would be hurt if $113 billion was cut from this particular form of medicare application. How could they not be? Why are we allowing ourselves to be distracted from the basics of administering an honest and fair program? Is the task so overwhelming that we have to give up? Isn't the consideration of a public option just laziness? Do we really want the same government who has allowed Medicare to become so entangled to be turned loose on the rest of us?

Let's stop dealing in sound bytes and attention seeking devices and just take care of the patients. Go after fraud. Go after abuse. Go after those who ill use the funds for the elderly and disabled. Does anyone in Washington know what they're doing in this whole health-care reform issue? I think not and until they do, leave my life, my mother-in-law's life and the lives of seniors alone.

By Sue Falkner Wood  |  September 28, 2009; 6:16 PM ET  | Category:  Medicare
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