Curb Medicare waste, fraud

Kansas City Star: With the administration predicting a record $482 billion deficit for next year, President Bush and Congress should be vigorously pursuing waste and corruption wherever they are likely to be found.

That certainly includes Medicare, a program of critical importance for many older Americans. In addition to being one of the biggest programs in the federal government, Medicare is often targeted for abuse by unethical individuals and companies.

This robs everyone in the country who supports Medicare through premiums, the Medicare payroll tax and the regular federal income tax. And it boosts federal deficits at a time when the nation can ill afford it.

Doubts

Medicare officials claim they have been tightening things up. But an alarming report last week by The New York Times raises serious doubts about that.

The draft of an inspector general’s report indicates that Medicare has been paying out far more money than it has previously acknowledged for improper and fraudulent claims, according to The Times.

The draft also said Medicare officials told outside auditors to ignore government policies that would have accurately measured fraud. Auditors were told, for example, that they should not compare sales invoices for medical equipment to doctors’ records.

Simply assuming honesty on the part of the sellers of this equipment is an obvious invitation to further fraud. Congress and probably Justice Department investigators need to start asking Medicare officials some hard questions about their operations — and their odd notions of auditing.