Sunday, February 6, 2011

BloggeRhythms 2/6/2011

The other day I mentioned that 10 billion taxpayer dollars have been spent on programs for managing salmon, and that I thought the premise was kind of fishy. Because, at a time when the country's just about broke, it seems like a lot of bucks to throw away on future upscale entrees.

But, the real point of that blog entry was to illustrate the gross mis-use of funds at the hands of bureaucrats, agencies and groups who seem to find causes wherever they look, and have no compunction whatsoever about how much they spend of the public's funds. In the same time-frame, I mentioned finding data showing that 64 cents out of every dollar raised by the Republican National Committee goes to cover it's costs, illustrating further that those spending other people's money tend not to care a lot about how much of it they waste.

So, in that vein, and thinking about how the government is still trying to sell the ridiculous premise that it can financially manage health care, I came across some more information this morning.

According to the Associated press, Medicare and Medicaid scams cost taxpayers more than $60 billion a year. And in trying to get the public's help to catch more than 170 fugitive fraudsters, the government has launched a new health care most-wanted list, with its own website

"Among those featured is Leonard Nwafor, convicted a couple of years ago in Los Angeles of billing Medicare more than $1 million for motorized wheelchairs that beneficiaries didn't need. One of those who got a wheelchair was a blind man who later testified he couldn't see to operate it. Even though motorized wheelchairs can run from under $1,000 to $7,000 apiece, Nawfor's scam was on the low end when compared to others who made the most-wanted list.

To document his transactions, Nwafor assembled elaborate paper files, complete with bogus prescriptions and photos of beneficiaries in their wheelchairs. But investigators had a hunch they were on to something when they discovered that most of his customers lived nearly 200 miles away from his Los Angeles-area store front."

Then there were sisters Clara and Caridad Guilarte who allegedly submitted $9 million to Medicare in false and fraudulent claims for pricey infusion drugs never provided to patients. They are accused of offering cash and other rewards for beneficiaries to visit their clinic in Dearborn, Mich., and sign forms that said they received services they never got.

Registered nurse, Susan Bendigo, is accused of billing California's Medicaid program for $17 million in nursing care, much of which was performed by staffers who weren't licensed. Bendigo was the nursing director for a company that provided personnel for home health agencies. Allegedly, she was fully aware that she was required to send licensed nurses to care for patients.

In Miami, brothers Carlos, Luis and Jose Benitez own a string of medical clinics, that allegedly scammed Medicare out of $119 million by billing for costly HIV drugs patients never received or did not need. Authorities say they bought hotels, helicopters and boats before fleeing to Cuba.

So, although these scams and mis-management cases only add up to several hundred million dollars, a mere drop in the bucket compared to 14 trillion in total government debt, the funds still come right out of taxpayer's pockets. And, since that's the case, I wonder how long it'll take for the public to realize that handing something as critical as health care over to mind-numb bureaucrats is financially suicidal.

That's it for today folks.

Adios

No comments:

Post a Comment