Saturday, March 3, 2012

Medicare Fraud

     Is medicare fraud a problem that can be solved. I don't think Medicare Fraud can be eliminated because people with Medicare are trusting individuals. They don't think their doctor could be committing Medicare fraud because they don't have a problem with their doctor.
     Perhaps this is the biggest problem with Medicare fraud. Doctors who commit it are good at covering up their activities. They don't do it to everyone. They do it to people who, they believe, will not know, or those who have no voice. People who's relatives are likely to say that they are glad their relative is not suffering any more or those who's will say they lived a good long life and accept the persons passing.
     The targets for Medicare fraud are usually the disabled the infirm or the very old, much as it is for medicaid fraud. Usually the doctor is the one who gets charged, but make no mistake, there are many others who benefit from it knowingly who walk away Scott Free. Medicare and Medicaid fraud can not exist without people turnig a blind eye to it. They use it like an ATM and they are either letting people's conditions deteriorate so they can charge more for the conditions that develop or they are medicating people for things that are not necessary. Still some others are given pain killers rather than doing a simple surgery to solve a problem.
     Fraud could not exist if these people had people to go to the doctor with them and ask questions and refuse to accept a first opinion. These days everyone should get a second opinion: if the doctor doesn't explain the results of any tests they or their relatives have; if the symptoms persist after they are told that there symptoms are due to something they were never told about; If they don't have symptoms but are told they have a problem; or if they still have questions after they see their doctor.
     A big indicator of fraud is a being given a diagnosis and being refused a referral for a second opinion or failure to do routine follow up tests.
     If at any time you are refused treatment under Medicaid or Medicare you should report it to those agencies in writing. Don't assume a phone call is enough. In many cases corruption exists within the system itself. Legal aide exists in many areas for free to help you file a complaint. We all need to be vigilant about this issue, to keep our disabled and elderly relatives safe and to save the tax payers huge bill because of fraud.
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