Medicaid, Medicare Make Easy Marks for Fraud

Greg Burns of the Chicago Tribune writes that in a troubled economy, cheating Medicare and Medicaid just might be the easiest money anywhere. Recent reports about violent criminals and organized-crime figures putting aside their drug-running enterprises to pose as health care providers only scratch the surface.

Burns continues, some health care fraud is sophisticated and subtle. Some results in bloody crime scenes as hardened criminals enter the racket.

"If you're going to defraud somebody, the government is a reliable payer," said John Blum, a law professor at Loyola University Chicago who specializes in health matters. "Eventually, people like me catch up to you."

Read more about Burns' thoughts on Medicaid and Medicare fraud on his original post here.

Texas Medicaid Fraud

Oops! More kickbacks for health officials have landed Texan health officials in some serious hot water. What is important about this case, as with all fraud cases, is that it affects the individuals who trusted in others to do their job and to do it well. People don't want to be seen as dollar signs, it grows contempt in the consumer which is just bad business. This case, with phony advocacy groups and false marketing materials is predatorial and wrong and these individuals deserve to be prosecuted by the full extent of the law. J&J’s Janssen Pharmaceutica funneled kickbacks to Texas health officials, distributed false marketing materials and deployed phony advocacy groups to get its Risperdal antipsychotic prescribed to low-income Texans, the state alleges in a new filing in an ongoing fraud lawsuit filed in 2006, according to The Dallas Morning News