MEDICARE IGNORED ITS CLAIMS POLICY, AUDIT SAYS

The report by the Health and Human Services inspector general's office, based on a sampling of claims for durable medical equipment, showed that some 29 percent of claims were made improperly but were paid by Medicare anyway.

Moreover: Medicare officials had estimated that improper payments cost the government health-care program for the elderly and disabled about $700 million in 2006.

However, for Medicare, the problem of paying improper claims is not new. Congressional reports show that Medicare paid nearly $100 million in recent years for claims submitted under the names of dead doctors, adds the Wall Street Journal.

[can you imagine a business allowing 700 large to be overpaid? Of course not - this is government.]

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