Using the False Claims Act to second-guess what patients need: Hungry relators, outsized DOJ recoveries, and the adverse consequences for American health care

The FCA’s aggressive use in health care cases by both the government and private parties means that nowadays, allegations go well beyond “fraud” in any traditional sense of that word, allowing the government and relators’ lawyers to retroactively second-guess physician decision-making, all the while wielding the formidable threat of treble damages and potentially crippling penalties.
Independence Institute’s Linda Gorman in Denver Post: Hickenlooper’s plan to finance Medicaid expansion is “reckless,” the “pie in the sky they always feed us.”
“Is our current Medicaid program so inefficient that they can magically save that much money on it?” Gorman said. “This is the pie in the sky they always feed us — that somehow, magically, we’re going to reorganize everything and save money.” Continue reading
Medicaid’s Cruel Status Quo: It’s a Medicaid Ghetto
But by ignoring the past success of welfare reform, and ignoring the serious problems with today’s Medicaid program, it’s the Times that is seeking to trap sixty million Americans in a government-run health care ghetto. Continue reading
Colorado SB 12-060 – Improve Medicaid fraud prosecution
SB 12-060 attempts to reduce Medicaid fraud. The Depart. of Health Care Policy & Financing (HCPF) has little incentive to reduce fraud, as for every CO tax dollar it spends, the Feds pay the HCPF a dollar taken from a taxpayer in another state. This is why replacing this matching this policy with a block grant would be an improvement. Continue reading
Improving Medicaid with block grants & consumer-directed health care
If Medicaid were turned into a block grant program in which the federal government gave each state a set amount of money, it could improve patient care, restrain the growth in costs, reduce complexity and improve outcomes. Continue reading
Why Medicare & Medicaid fraud dwarfs commercial endevours
” Politicians are spending other people’s money, so their incentive to prevent fraud is far less. Therefore, fraud will always be higher in government programs than in similar market endeavors.” Continue reading
Entitlement Bandits Rob Medicaid/Medicare
Giving Medicare enrollees vouchers for private insurance and block-granting Medicaid (as passed by the House of Representatives but defeated in the Senate) would reduce the crushing levels of fraud in Medicare and Medicaid.
Colorado Medicaid errors far exceed commercial insurers’
Look forward to more costly errors at the expense of your tax dollars. The new health control legislation (HR 3590) expands Medicaid eligibility. Linda Gorman points out that Colorado Medicaid’s error rate in paying claims is much higher than private insurers. Her reference is the 2009 State of Colorado Statewide SIngle Audit. The section of […]