Talk Radio News Service: News, Politics, Media

By Laurel Brishel Prichard University of New Mexico/ Talk Radio News Service

The Congressional Health Care Caucus (CHC) highlighted the consequences of Medicare fraud Tuesday and called on their colleagues to take actions that could possibly save billions of dollars for the social insurance program.

“[Medicare fraud] is very serious problem and one that requires serious attention ... to reclaim the scarce health care dollars that people are otherwise diverting from the system,” said Rep. Michael Burgress (R-Texas) during a news conference.

Jim Frogue, the Vice President for Center for Health Transformation, proposed fighting fraud through an identity check system, similar to the process that is used with credit card purchases. Such a measure would require individuals who are receiving Medicare-Medicaid benefits to have proper identification.

“People can get away with [fraud] for months and years and never get caught," said Frogue, who appeared alongside the CHC. "The mandate of Medicare-Medicaid is to pay the bills and ask questions later."

According to Frogue, anti-fraud measures already in place are inadequate. The Medicaid Fraud Control Units (MFCU) only focus on high profile cases, Frogue says, and essentially overlooks the smaller cases.

"I don’t know why I’m not retired in the Caribbean. Its so easy to steal this money and just move on,” joked Frogue.