Nasty case of medical billing fraud
Friday, August 8th, 2008This horror story of medical billing fraud comes from LA. The FBI alleges that a hospital system CEO and health care administrator conscripted or recruited homeless people for unecessary health care that they billed to federal and state goverments. The homeless “patients” got kickbacks after their hospital stays and some were reportedly repeat players.
Sounds almost like a screenplay for a moderately interesting thilller.
Unfortunately, it’s real. Medical billing fraud doesn’t get a lot of air time when people are talking about excessive costs of medical care. I wonder how much of a problem it really is? Assuming that the FBI got it right, these people feeding at the trough are giving a bad name to all the hard-working doctors and medical providers who play by the rules. Lousy deal.
David Sugerman