|
Pilfer a loaf of bread and go to jail. Steal from Medicare and receive a bonus from the health care provider engaged in fraud.
"Medicare fraud widens" blares a newspaper headline. An Associated Press story datelined Washington, D.C., carries this news: "The home health care visits were never needed, never authorized and never made."
The scenario didn't stop a Florida company from billing Medicare $26 million. The dispatch goes on to say: "The Clinton Administration and Congress are struggling to eliminate what auditors call `significant fraud,' coupled with a payment system that exercises virtually no control over costs."
We earlier learned of costs where defense contractors charged $700 for a hammer, which should have cost only $15. However, the defense agency at least received the hammer.
Now our federal bureaucracy and Congress are seeking ways to "save Medicare" from going broke by the year 2002. Solutions are slow in coming.
Senior citizens have known for years that certain medical providers are stealing from Medicare. Ridiculous costs, many of them for services not even provided, have shown up on hospital and doctor billings for decades.
It has long been obvious that Medicare would flourish financially far into the 21st century with current taxes and patient billing if only a portion of the fraud and thievery was stopped.
Is it really cost-effective to be so cost-conscious that insufficient resources are spent on adequate auditing? We all know that people left free to steal will do so. Perhaps not everyone, but a sufficient number of people will take things if not fearful of being caught, and thus even bankrupt an enterprise, to say nothing of a government.
Members of Congress are back in their home states this week on their annual spring break. If one shows up in your neighborhood, why not confront him with the question: When are you going to fix Medicare?
-- Did you know that Nevada has the highest suicide rate among all age groups in the United States? In the senior population, people age 65 and older die by their own hand every 84 minutes.
There will be a seminar on this subject from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday at the Elks Lodge, 4100 W. Charleston Blvd. The event is sponsored by the Community College of Southern Nevada in conjunction with the Nevada Division of Aging Services.
Dr. Nancy Osgood, associate professor of gerontology and sociology at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical College, will be a speaker. She will discuss the precipitating factors in late-life suicide, including assessments needed for prevention.
Among her writings is a journal article "Assisted Suicide and Older People -- A Deadly Combination: Ethical Problems in Permitting Assisted Suicide."
The elderly take their lives for many reasons, she wrote; illness, loss of a loved one, alcoholism and loneliness among them. These and other symptoms are what family, friends and caregivers should be aware of.
Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., whose father committed suicide, will be the luncheon speaker. Cost of the seminar including the luncheon is $20. Reservations are required by calling 651-5790.
-- Dr. Joran Seggev will talk about "Surviving With Allergies and Asthma in Our Climate" at 1:30 p.m. April 8 at Columbia Sunrise Mountainview Hospital, 3100 N. Tenaya Way. A specialist in immunology, he will discuss ways of dealing with allergies. Phone 255-5404 for reservations.
-- Susan Barnes will talk about her decision to donate an organ to save the life of a child during a meeting at 1 p.m. April 9 at Green Valley Resource Center, 2809 N. Green Valley Parkway. Her talk is sponsored by Columbia Sunrise Friends. Phone 434-6500 for reservations.
|
|
