MIAMI (AP) — A new report shows that contractors who are paid tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to detect fraudulent Medicare claims are using inaccurate and inconsistent data. And that makes it difficult to catch bogus bills submitted by crooks.
The report, released Monday, was done by the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Under the Medicare system, one set of contractors pays claims while another combs through data in an effort to stop some $60 billion a year in fraud.
The report found repeated problems among the fraud contractors over a decade and failures by federal health officials to adequately supervise them.
The same issues were identified 10 years ago by inspector general investigators, and dozens of reports in the past decade also have found problems.
Source: Kelli Kennedy – AP
