Medicaid Fraud Uncovered in Survey

NAHU Newswire 10/1/2009


GAO finds "thousands" of potentially fraudulent Medicaid purchases. CQ HealthBeat (10/1, Norman, subscription required) reports that a GAO "analysis has found thousands of Medicaid beneficiaries involved in potentially fraudulent purchases of controlled substances in five large states -- including prescriptions filled for some 1,800 people who had already died." The investigation "also found Medicaid in those states paid about $500,000 in claims based on controlled substance prescriptions 'written' by physicians after their deaths." The report was issued to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Wednesday. Committee member Sen. Thomas R. Carper (D-DE) said, "It is clear that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services need to do a better job of providing guidance and regulatory enforcement for the states. .. At the same time, states need to take greater responsibility for preventing and rooting out fraud, waste and abuse from their own backyards."