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Medicare's fraud problem is reportedly huge, accounting for fully 3% of all healthcare spending nationwide. The Inspector General estimates that $60bn is spent annually on fraudulently billed medical equipment and supplies. In Miami, an estimated 31% of the area's 1,500 medical supply firms are phony. Instead of trying to report on the huge numbers, NBC's Pierre Thomas decided to have the part illustrate the whole. He teamed up with the FBI's medical fraud squad in Miami. Together they visited five different firms and "four showed no sign of being in business." The office of a single company that billed Medicare for more than $400,000 in April did not even have a doorknob on its front door. Thus an anecdotal knob stands for $60bn.
Andrew Tyndall 5/11/09 9:08:01 pm

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