Texas Insider

2:37 pm CST - November 18, 2009

Sen. Cornyn: CMS Report Confirms Fraud Runs Rampant In Government-Run Health Care Programs

WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, today issued the following statement regarding a new federal report indicating the government paid more than $47 billion in questionable Medicare claims in fiscal year 2009.

The Associated Press reports that the study, done by CMS, also shows a “dramatic increase in improper payments in the $440 billion Medicare program that has been cited by government auditors as a high risk for fraud and waste for 20 years.”

“Today’s report confirms and expands on what we have known all along – fraud runs rampant in government-run health care programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. Rather than fix the core problems that result in billions of fraud and taxpayer losses each year, the President and Democrat leaders want to replicate these broken programs and create a brand new government-run health care program that will perpetuate the problems of fraud and abuse.

“To make matters worse, they want to gut the already insolvent Medicare program by more than $400 billion, which will come directly from payments to providers who care for Medicare patients. The Administration’s own actuaries have said these payment cuts will jeopardize access to care for seniors, and we know it will shoulder their grandchildren with trillions of dollars in debt.”

Today’s CMS report will also show that:

Medicare’s durable medical equipment improper payment rate is a staggering 52% (up from 7% last year).
Medicare’s improper payment rate is 7.8% (up from 3.6% last year), which is a conservative estimate.

6 Comments

MarkE
6:21 pm CST
November 18, 2009

Please Sen. John Cornyn don’t blow smoke at us with sudden awareness of Medicare fraud.
This has been going on for decades. You and your colleges have overlooked this problem and even profited from it over the years. It’s time for change in this country-not the Obama kind but true spending of our tax money. You just keep spending!
We are voting for change in 2010 and 2012 for our grand children. We can’t leave them with $15 trillion of debit to pay.

Ed Sunderland
9:52 pm CST
November 18, 2009

Sen. Cornyn: CMS Report Confirms Fraud Runs Rampant In Government-Run Health Care Programs.

“Boy, the AP is really going to be surprised when they find out Obama is a fake and a fraud”. “Hey Senator, why don’t you get with BO and help him find his birth certificate?”

SJK
8:04 am CST
November 18, 2009

Senator Cornyn, you need to step it up and take a stronger stand for your country and the American people! We are counting on you to and watching the actions you take very closely. Work harder to get more Senators to vote against these “unconstitutional bills they are wanting to ram down our throats. The healthcare bill is not about healthcare! It is all about greed and government control as is the Cap and TAX bill. Senator Cornyn you are there to serve your constituents….DO IT!!! Attempting to stop Medicare fraud is good, but the overall healthcare bill must not be passed….work at harder at making sure that doesn’t happen! Shape up or ship out!!!

sonny
8:35 am CST
November 18, 2009

We have had Medicare fraud for years. Some estimate it at $100 billion dollars per year. We spend $90 bilion dollars per year on illegal aliens. $190 billion dollars per year wasted for years. If Congress had been working to correct this problem we would have enough to provide healthcare to more people. Obama wants to take $400 billion dollars from Medicare, the Congress has been robbing Social Security for years taking the money and using it on their pet projectss putting worthless I.O.U.s in it.This isn’t something that just happend overnight. Now that its caught up with them they suddenly discover they have a problem. It seems Congress is incapable of living within its means as citizens have to do. They cant stand to see some money somewhere that they can’t get their greedy hands on. Well turning our country into a socialist regime is not the answer, Congress being more accountable for its actions is the correct answer. I hope a lot of this will be rectified in 2010 and 2012 when we the people speak and you have to listen for a change.

Gary Crittenden
9:20 am CST
November 18, 2009

This has been aproblem for how long?? And it is just now being discovered??Each and ever one of the members of both houses need to go, sooner than later.

Mike
8:56 pm CST
November 18, 2009

Hey Senator Cornyn! How about stopping fraud and abuse by defeating the healthcare reform bill?