I’m definitely not an Obama fan, but this sounds reasonable. The idea is to have "bounty hunters" go through the government programs looking for fraud. This is from AP, via Yahoo:
Waste and fraud are pervasive problems for Medicare and Medicaid, the giant government health insurance programs for seniors and low-income people. Improper payments totaled an estimated billion in 2009. They range from simple errors such as duplicate billing to elaborate schemes operated by fraudsters peddling everything from wheelchairs to hospice care.
The bounty hunters in this case would be private auditors armed with sophisticated computer programs to scan Medicare and Medicaid billing data for patterns of bogus claims. The auditors would get to keep part of any funds they recover. The White House said a Medicare pilot program recouped 0 million for taxpayers from 2005-08.
The question was based on the assumption that they would be true "bounty hunters". Paid only on delivery. If this is set up as another funded government program, I agree that it is a non-starter.
The idea has merit. However, what is the funding source for this. How much will be recouped for every dollar spent. What can be done to prevent false accusation.
Yes, I can support that one measure.
Sounds good to me. I want the Dog to do it.
What makes you think that anyone will actually do an efficient job of it?
They will be over-paid union hacks that will half-tail it, just like those who work for every government program.
No, I’m not a psychic. History repeats itself.
Yea sounds good why just stop at health care hit all of the government.
Let’s see….spend 2.5 Trillion for save 54 billion? Not very smart….oh and obama’s numbers appeared to be off by over 800 billion…..so while it’s nice….I’m not buying into it unless that is the only thing that gets passed.
If they can stop the fraud, why haven’t they already done it?
I think we should all be able to agree on the eliminating preexisting conditions, and insurance co. putting a cap on the amount of coverage you’re allowed, or dropping you when you get really sick OR raising prices enormously high while the CEO makes profits in the billions
Government auditors uncovering waste and fraud?? They still haven’t finished sifting through the waste and fraud which resulted from Katrina.
I think we can all agree that
Everyone Hates Fraud
seems like a great place to start.
sounds like another instance of:
"the bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of the ever expanding bureaucracy"
good concept..but then soon there will be 3 other agencies set up to manage this bounty hunter agency…then those agencies will need to be managed and before you know it …it’ll have cost less to just let the $50Bil slide
The problem is the "bounty hunters" will work for the government one way or another. maybe they could start with the government and weed out all the corruption, ethics violations and fraud.
I like the idea of "Bounty Hunters" going after fraud and waste.
The Idea has merit, considering "bounty hunters" get a % of what they recover. If they recover,then they get paid a percentage of what they recover.
Yes, we finally have oversight and enough investigators under Eric Holder to root out the fraudulent medical suppliers and providers. Duplicate billing is done deliberately to make more money, not in error, and the schemes to bilk the Medicare/Medicaid system are bold. Some companies dont actually exist, some don’t have real patients. It is a system too large for the whole country and should have regional centers, not centralized in Washington for funding and oversight.