Published: 07-29-08
Sen. John Cornyn Co-chairs forum to examine Medicare fraud and abuse shed light on necessary steps to end practice
WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. John Cornyn R-Texas co-chaired a forum today along with Sen. Mel Martinez R-Fla. to examine efforts Congress should take to target and eliminate Medicare fraud.
According to a recent report released by the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs’ Subcommittee Medicare paid up to $92 million in claims linked to deceased physicians from 2000 to 2007. Sen. Cornyn said it is only the latest evidence that Congress must do more to address Medicare fraud and abuse.
“Today’s forum was an opportunity to shed light on the true costs of Medicare fraud and the root causes that we must address. I appreciated the chance to discuss this problem with leading experts who made clear that inaction is allowing rampant waste fraud and abuse. Overall Medicare fraud is estimated to be at $60 billion which is 20 percent of all Medicare spending. As a result millions of taxpayer dollars are going down the drain. The Medicare program is critical to our nation’s seniors and must be one that is run efficiently and effectively.
“Last month Sen. Martinez and I joined together in offering The Seniors and Taxpayers Obligation Protection Act or STOP Act to protect honest taxpayers seniors and providers by strengthening the Medicare program itself. I hope that the Democratic leadership in Congress will give this issue and this legislation the attention it deserves. Our bill represents a first step in fighting Medicare fraud and will put us on the right track to saving taxpayer money and protecting our seniors.
“I hope that everyone will notice the urgency of this issue and make it a top priority. Our seniors our providers and our taxpayers deserve better accountability from Medicare.”
Background
Sens. Cornyn and Martinez introduced a measure to detect and prevent Medicare fraud in June. The Senior and Taxpayers Obligation Protection Act (STOP Act) will require the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to put procedures in place that will help stop Medicare fraud before it starts.
In particular the STOP Act:
• Requires the Secretary of HHS to implement procedures to change the current system of using Social Security numbers as the Medicare Beneficiary Identifier (MBI) thus reducing fraud and identity theft among seniors. In addition HHS will implement a procedure for verifying the accuracy of physician charges.
• Establishes prepaid fraud detection methods which include pre-enrollment site visits for high risk areas and prepayment claim edits to detect submissions that are most likely fraudulent.
