WASHINGTONU.S. Sen. John Cornyn R-Texas a member of the Senate Finance Committee today issued the following statement regarding a new federal report indicating the government paid more than $47 billion in questionable Medicare claims in fiscal year 2009.
The Associated Press reports that the study done by CMS also shows a dramatic increase in improper payments in the $440 billion Medicare program that has been cited by government auditors as a high risk for fraud and waste for 20 years."
Todays report confirms and expands on what we have known all along fraud runs rampant in government-run health care programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. Rather than fix the core problems that result in billions of fraud and taxpayer losses each year the President and Democrat leaders want to replicate these broken programs and create a brand new government-run health care program that will perpetuate the problems of fraud and abuse.
To make matters worse they want to gut the already insolvent Medicare program by more than $400 billion which will come directly from payments to providers who care for Medicare patients. The Administrations own actuaries have said these payment cuts will jeopardize access to care for seniors and we know it will shoulder their grandchildren with trillions of dollars in debt."
Todays CMS report will also show that:
- Medicares durable medical equipment improper payment rate is a staggering 52 (up from 7 last year).
- Medicares improper payment rate is 7.8 (up from 3.6 last year) which is a conservative estimate.
