Talk about government waste! From April 2006 through March 2007, Medicare improperly paid $1 billion for durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics, and supplies in part because of fraudulent companies.
According to a new report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) lacks oversight of millions of dollars in Medicare funds for durable equipment supplies. CMS allowed “sham companies” to fraudulently bill Medicare for “unnecessary or nonexistent supplies.”
To test CMS’s oversight, investigators set up two fictitious supply companies, which were approved for Medicare billing privileges, even though these fake companies didn’t have clients or inventory. According to the GAO, one company received $2.2 million in Medicare payments for supplies and services never delivered.
For more information, download the 28-page report, Medicare: Covert Testing Exposes Weaknesses in the Durable Medical Equipment Supplier Screening Process (PDF).
