Medicare, Medicaid Billing and Equipment Fraud Essay

Medicare, Medicaid Billing and Equipment Fraud - Essay Example However, according to anonymous (3), the Congressional Budget Office estimated total Medicare spending in 2010 to be $528 billion, giving a rough estimate of approximately 9% waste. The Medicare and medic aid are fraud targets as they are founded on the billing system of â€Å"honor†. They were initially set-up as an aid to honest doctors who could help the needy access medical services. Medicare fraud is evident in phantom billing, patient billing, and upcoding unbundling scheme. Durable medical equipment is also pruned to medical fraud. Examples of this equipment include oxygen supplies and wheelchairs. In equipment fraud, scammers charge Medicare for a similar wheelchair for many times without actually giving the chair to actual persons. The most recent cases of Medicare fraud focuses on infusion injections on HIV/AIDS. These injections are very expensive but patients are normally injected with common liquids or saline solutions (Anonymous 5). However, Medicare is billed in such way that shows that the expensive injection was really given. With current trends in such frauds, only law and ethical issues can stop the practice.