July 01, 2008
The Washington Post says that experts are concerned about the growing problem of health care fraud, which is estimated to cost taxpayers over $60 billion each year.
The article notes that Medicare automatically pays most provider bills that are submitted with federally issued supplier numbers. The audit systems focus on overbilling and unorthodox treatment rather than fraud.
These circumstances allowed a high school dropout using a laptop computer to bilk the federal government out of $105 million.