Medicaid Fraud More than $63 Million in 5 States Alone, GAO Report Finds
Published: 2009-10-21 16:38:45
Author: Fred Lucas | CNS News | October 7, 2009
(CNSNews.com) – A California man took on the name of a dead person to receive taxpayer-funded health care for more than three years, charging $200,000 to the Medicaid system, including $2,870 to buy controlled substances under an assumed identity.
A Houston-area physician’s assistant kept on signing the name of the doctor who once employed her after that doctor had died. The prescriptions, many of which were also covered by Medicaid, were also for prescription pain killers.
More than 1,800 prescriptions were filled for people who are dead and another 1,200 prescriptions were written with the signatures of deceased doctors, according to an investigation of five states by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). And those were only two of the startling findings in a report that discovered $63.2 million in waste in five states alone.
That GAO report issued last week found 65,000 cases of fraud in the Medicaid prescription drug program in California, Illinois, New York, North Carolina, and Texas. The report also found widespread doctor-shopping by Medicaid recipients.
Medicaid, launched in 1965, is a federal program administered by the states to provide health care financial assistance for low-income persons and families. A little more than 60 million people used Medicaid in 2007 at a cost of $319 billion.
In the new GAO report concerning $63.2 million in fraud and waste in five states, at least $200,000 in Medicaid funds were used to pay for prescriptions written for dead people, while $500,000 in Medicaid was used to pay for prescriptions signed with the names of deceased doctors.
Full story
Published: 2009-10-21 16:38:45
Author: Fred Lucas | CNS News | October 7, 2009
(CNSNews.com) – A California man took on the name of a dead person to receive taxpayer-funded health care for more than three years, charging $200,000 to the Medicaid system, including $2,870 to buy controlled substances under an assumed identity.
A Houston-area physician’s assistant kept on signing the name of the doctor who once employed her after that doctor had died. The prescriptions, many of which were also covered by Medicaid, were also for prescription pain killers.
More than 1,800 prescriptions were filled for people who are dead and another 1,200 prescriptions were written with the signatures of deceased doctors, according to an investigation of five states by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). And those were only two of the startling findings in a report that discovered $63.2 million in waste in five states alone.
That GAO report issued last week found 65,000 cases of fraud in the Medicaid prescription drug program in California, Illinois, New York, North Carolina, and Texas. The report also found widespread doctor-shopping by Medicaid recipients.
Medicaid, launched in 1965, is a federal program administered by the states to provide health care financial assistance for low-income persons and families. A little more than 60 million people used Medicaid in 2007 at a cost of $319 billion.
In the new GAO report concerning $63.2 million in fraud and waste in five states, at least $200,000 in Medicaid funds were used to pay for prescriptions written for dead people, while $500,000 in Medicaid was used to pay for prescriptions signed with the names of deceased doctors.
Full story