Medicare abuse and fraud costs taxpayers tens of billions of dollars every year. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or C.M.S., estimated that in 2010, the two programs together made more than $65 billion in improper federal payments. An April 2012 study by a RAND Corporation analyst and former C.M.S. administrator estimated that fraud and abuse cost Medicare and Medicaid as much as $98 billion in 2011.
In addition to the cost, Medicare fraud can jeopardize patients’ health. In some cases, patients cannot get the care they need because fraudulent charges have exhausted their allotment of Medicare benefits.
Read the article on nytimes.com
