Health Care 2010 reform proposal
Health News Today about health care reform proposal from CNN News.President Obama presented a revamped health care reform proposal on Wednesday that may incorporate, according to the White House, a series of Republican ideas that the caucus has advocated in the past.
Combating waste, fraud and abuse: Obama proposes that those in the medical field conduct random undercover investigations of health care providers that receive reimbursements from Medicare, Medicaid and other federal programs.Republicans have advocated for registration and background checks of billing agencies and individuals.During the health care summit last week, Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma, asked the president to address the fraud and abuse in public health care programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.
“The biggest thing on fraud is to have undercover patients so that people know we’re checking on whether or not this is a legitimate bill,” he said. “And you don’t know who’s an undercover patient and who’s not. And all of a sudden you start changing your attitude of whether or not you’re going to milk Medicare or you’re going to milk Medicaid.”
In a letter to the president, Coburn said: “I am pleased that you may be willing to consider this idea on fraud, but it alone is insufficient to staunch the flow of taxpayer dollars into the hands of criminals. I would encourage you to adopt other proposals that, I believe, would help lower the costs associated with fraud and defensive medicine.”
At the summit, Coburn said, “One out of every $3 that gets spent doesn’t help anybody get well and doesn’t prevent anybody from getting sick.” He cited a Harvard scholar’s finding that “20 percent of the cost of federal government health care is fraud,” and that there are estimates of $15 billion a year in Medicaid fraud in New York City alone.
“Well, when you look at the total amount of health care that’s government run, you’re talking $150 billion a year,” he said.The bottom line, according to the CNN Fact Check Desk: Coburn’s figures overstate the problem by a large amount and, according to one of the experts he cites, does not reflect the uncertainty involved in his calculations.
Medical malpractice lawsuits: Obama is also considering a Republican-supported idea to appropriate $50 million to help states find alternate resolutions to medical malpractice disputes, including health courts.
