MEDICARE FRAUD: L.A. Times Calls for Continued Crackdown
A Los Angeles Times editorial hails yesterday's announcement that a government crackdown has reduced Medicare fraud and abuse by 46%. However, the editorial says the "not-so-good news is that errors and fraud still added $12.6 billion to Medicare's costs last year, more than seven cents out of every dollar spent." The Times concludes, "Over the last decade Medicare's costs have risen by 10% a year. In a little more than a decade the first of 76 million baby boomers will enroll in the system. Medicare is unavoidably going to cost more. But by continuing to aggressively go after error and fraud, tens of billions of dollars can be saved" (2/11).
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