Medicare approves fake contracts

From Sunshine Review

5 August 2008

It was reveals that the Medicare office was approving contracts for fake medical supply companies with little or no supervision.

[edit] GAO investigation

The Government Accountability Office recently submitted requests from fictional companies, from Maryland and Virginia, to approved by Medicare as medical equipment suppliers. Despite the companies having no customers, no products in stock and vague information that offered little assurances the companies were legitimate the Medicare office gave its approval.

Roughly $1 billion of the $10 billion in annual Medicare payments the government makes for medical equipment were deemed improper in a report.^[1] There was no suggestion to make the contract process more transparent to the public.

[edit] References